m 


GEMS 

-  BY- 

Helen  Bartlett  Bridgman 


Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
1916 


131 


Copyright  1916 
By  Helen  Barllett  Bridgman 


To 

Zona  Gale 

Lover  of  Gems  in  Earth  and  Sky 


422279 


-  -.i>, ^ 
... 


HOW  IT  BEGAN. 


Gems  in  their  appeal  are  like  the  stars.  They  enchant  the  eye, 
they  stir  the  imagination.  Then,  as  with  cats  and  clocks,  they  are 
"company." 

A  valuable  stone  is  the  one  thing  that  endures.  Lace  is  soon 
a  rag,  velvet  impossible,  flowers  dead;  but  a  jewel,  if  treated  kindly, 
lives  forever.  It  is  indeed  almost  as  indestructible  as  truth  or  a 
mighty  love. 

The  very  word  evokes  a  picture.  Is  there  a  richer  syllable 
than  "gem"?  With  the  jeweler  it  means  the  finest  of  its  kind. 
But  the  scholars  say  a  gem,  whether  of  emerald  or  quartz,  is  not 
a  gem  unless  engraved. 

Other  times,  other  manners.  These  days  the  art  of  gem  en- 
graving scarcely  exists,  while  precious  stones  are  everywhere.  Be- 
fore a  fine  specimen,  "gem"  leaps  to  the  lips  involuntarily.  It  is  sug- 
gested that  the  business  classification  be  known  as  gemology  in 
distinction  from  the  mineralogy  of  science. 

Treatises  on  gems,  comparatively  few,  difficult  of  access,  gener- 
ally reference  books,  are  often  tough  reading.  The  scientist  may  be 
great  and  useful,  but  for  the  neophyte  he  has  scant  regard.  It 
seemed  as  if  a  small  volume,  depicting  in  simple  words  the  salient 
features  of  precious  stones,  garnering  from  the  huge  harvest  of  re- 
search the  easily  assimilable,  might  not  come  amiss.  If  we  cannot 
know  all,  let  us  at  least  grasp  something  from  that  vast  world  of  in- 
teresting facts  to  which  so  many  women  who  wear  jewels  and  men 
who  buy  and  sell  them  seem  indifferent.  Gems  have  many  sides,  and 
even  laymen  may  attain  a  few. 

Nothing  is  more  bewildering  to  the  beginner  than  the  manner  in 
which  the  various  mineral  families  masquerade  in  one  another's 
clothing.  It  would  be  no  trick  at  all  were  the  garnet  always  red,  the 
sapphire  always  blue,  the  topaz  always  yellow,  as  at  first  we  suppose. 
Nature  seems  positively  to  enjoy  playing  pranks  which  turn  all  pre- 
conceived notions  topsy-turvy.  Increasing  experience  confers  that 
sixth  sense  which  gradually  distinguishes  one  family  from  another. 
Yet  even  experts,  to  be  absolutely  sure,  must  sometimes  resort  to 
scientific  tests.  These  are  the  triumphs  of  modern  times  over  the 
simple  file  of  the  ancients.  Now,  hardness,  specific  gravity,  refrac- 
tion, dispersion,  dichroicism,  by  means  of  delicate  and  often  inexpen- 
sive instruments,  can  precisely  be  determined. 

To  own  a  few  good  stones  is  an  education.  Like  pictures,  their 
qualities  come  out  only  in  close  association.  A  judiciously  purchased 
collection  may  prove  a  good  investment.  Money  put  into  them  is 
wasted  no  more  than  in  travel,  perhaps  the  best  of  all  investments, 

5 


since  it  never  can  be  wrested  from  us  by  theft,  panic  or  fraud.  Gems 
stimulate  curiosity  and  make  us  want  to  travel ;  to  those  bright  warm 
lands  whence  most  of  them  come ;  to  those  dark  people  who  forever 
"call." 

Never  shall  I  forget  a  certain  morning  at  Colombo,  Ceylon,  in 
Aladdin's  palace  as  it  were.  I  sauntered  in  quite  unconcernedly,  asking 
for  moonstones,  and  the  thing  that  happened  was  the  heavens  opened 
and  showered  down  clouds  and  planets  and  astral  bodies ;  while  the 
earth  heaved  and  threw  up  the  gems  she  so  long  had  concealed  in  her 
dusky  bosom — and  I  gasped  and  wondered.  Glowing  rubies ;  amaz- 
ing cat's-eyes;  sapphires  of  every  quality  and  hue;  pearls  in  great 
extravagant  heaps;  moonstones  as  common  as  pebbles  on  a  beach; 
garnets,  spinels  and  the  strange  alexandrite,  green  by  day  and  red  at 
night;  most,  if  not  all  of  them,  the  product  of  Ceylon — a  riot  of 
beauty,  an  orgy  of  color ;  and  all  for  such  little  sums,  as  compared  to 
the  king's  ransom  necessary  for  their  purchase  on  Fifth  Avenue. 

There  was  an  opal,  the  wedding  of  sunset  with  moonrise,  of 
dawn  with  evening,  of  poetry  with  music,  of  the  sky  with  the  rose,  that 
a  woman  would  sell  her  soul  to  possess;  and  though  I  might  want  for 
bread,  it  became  mine.  It  is  a  privilege  lo  own  a  thing  perfect  of 
its  kind,  and  this  was  the  most  beautiful  opal  ever  seen  in  Ceylon; 
actually  a  passionate  stone,  which  had  to  be  placed  far  away  from 
my  gray-blue  jade — so  calm,  ethereal  and  pure. 

Then  the  antique  Indian  jewelry,  the  fine  filigree  work,  the  ropes 
of  pearls  and  exquisitely  wrought  gold,  with  flesh-tinted  carnelian, 
the  ancient  sard,  peeping  out  at  intervals.  Bracelets,  anklets,  coronets, 
necklaces,  ear-drops,  and  rings ;  flexible  gold  chains,  heavy  as  lead ; 
precious  stones  encrusted  on  solid  gold  plates;  all  some 
hundreds  of  years  old,  and  once  the  property  of  the  wealthy 
great.  How  they  speak  to  you — these  eloquent  specimens  of  a 
skilled  handicraft  fast  passing  away ;  and  how  they  make  you  pray 
that  such  splendid  art  may  not  die,  but  suddenly  rise  up  and  live  a 
thousand  years. 

My  last  glimpse  of  Ceylon  embraced  her  civilization  in  micro- 
cosm— the  ocean  in  a  single  drop.  It  was  then,  with  the  sea  breaking 
in  long,  creamy  lines  close  to  the  rickshaw,  the  blood-red  road  lead- 
ing into  the  wonder  of  green,  that  men,  women  and  children  sank 
into  insignificance  beside  the  one  penetrating  fact  of  a  tropical  land ; 
a  land  which  asks  no  odds  of  any  human  being,  but  conceives,  blooms 
and  fructifies  without  bargain  or  stint.  It  is  not  the  Cingalese,  sub- 
tly alluring  though  they  may  be;  it  is  Ceylon  herself — alive, 
eternally  youthful,  eternally  fecund.  Here,  beauty  is  a  vital,  palpitat- 
ing thing ;  here  green  shoots  forth,  buds  blossom,  fruits  ripen,  gems 
are  tossed  up,  as  you  gaze.  Nature  need  never  be  coaxed,  she  opens 
her  arms  wide  and  surrenders  herself  gladly.  Thus  will  this  paradi- 
sal  isle  ever  rise  before  me — as  a  young  ardent  mother,  with  a  stir- 
ring life  always  beneath  her  heart,  and  forever  giving  of  her  blood 
and  substance  for  love  alone. 


GEM  LITERATURE. 


Theophrastus,  successor  to  Aristotle,  was  the  father  of  miner- 
alogy. Of  all  the  extensive  literature  regarding  stones  referred  to 
by  Pliny,  only  his  one  little  treatise,  fortunately  incorporated  by  Pliny 
in  one  of  his  own  works,  is  extant.  Pliny  wrote  two  books  on  gems 
in  his  Natural  History,  a  prodigious  work  of  many  volumes,  full  of 
scholarship,  if  not  originality.  He  cites  first  Socatus,  as  "one  of  the 
most  ancient  writers  on  the  subject,"  apparently  a  physician  at  the 
Persian  court,  for  he  states  that  he  had  seen  the  wondrous  Dracontias, 
probably  the  first  diamond,  in  the  possession  of  "The  King,"  who, 
designated  by  this  sole  title,  could  be  no  other  than  the  King  of  Per- 
sia, says  C.  W.  King,  the  English  clergyman,  scholar  and  gem  expert, 
from  whose  summary  these  items  are  abridged. 

Theophrastus  wrote^his  meagre  treatise  300  B.  C.  Between 
Theophrastus  and  Pliny  nofle  have  lived,  except  in  casual  quotations 
by  the  latter,  though  many  wrote.  Pliny  perisheo^n  the  destruction 
of  Pompeii,  after  a  life  devoted  exclusively  to  study.  He  studied  by 
night  as  well  as  day,  his  assistants  reading  to  him  while  he  ate,  even 
in  his  bath.  Study  alternated  continuously  with  sleep,  and  light  re- 
pasts, and  it  was  not  suspended  on  journeys.  His  sole  outing  was  a 
visit  before  daybreak  to  the  Emperor  Vespasian,  the  strong  and 
wise,  with  whom  he  was  on  the  best  of  terms,  and  who  died  the  same 
year  as  himself,  A.  D.  79.  Vespasian,  General  and  soldier  as  well  as 
Emperor,  evidently  did  not  object  to  such  an  early  caller,  and  gave 
him  various  commissions  to  perform,  after  which  Pliny  would  return 
to  his  books.  He  was  heard  to  say  that  there  was  no  book,  however 
bad,  from  which  some  good  could  not  be  obtained.  Yet  one  might 
well  wish  a  little  personal  investigation  could  have  taken  the  place 
of  so  much  learning. 

The  next  in  importance  is  Solinus,  who  wrote  a  couple  of  centur- 
ies after  Pliny,  probably  during  the  feeble  revival  under  Constantine. 
He  was  a  jeweler  and  connoisseur,  and  puts  into  better  form  and 
describes  more  exactly  the  information  Pliny  dug  out  of  his  authori- 
ties, sometimes  with  too  little  reference  to  the  living  fact  around  the 
corner. 

Epiphanius,  Bishop  of  Solamis,  in  Cyprus,  composed  about  400 
A.  D.  a  small  tract  upon  the  twelve  stones  of  the  High  Priest's 
Breastplate,  or  Rationale.  He  refers  occasionally  to  valuable  sources 
of  information  then  accessible,  but  quotes  from  memory  or  else  tran- 
scribes without  understanding.  He  confuses  stones,  makes  absurd 
mistakes,  and  seems  more  absorbed  in  their  medicinal  virtues  than 
anything  else — those  virtues  which  together  with  their  mystical 
powers  were  believed  in  by  many  mineralogists  from  early  Greek 
times  to  the  Renaissance.  Epiphanius  is  of  special  value  in  his  defini- 

7 


tion  of  the  three  species  of  Hyacinthus ;  and  his  allusion  to  Adamas 
as  a  sky-colored  stone,  a  proof  that  this  ancient  authority  knew  as 
such  the  sapphire. 

Isidorus,  Bishop  of  Seville,  in  the  seventh  century,  contented 
himself  with  abridging  Pliny's  definitions  and  quoting  Solinus.  He 
also  believed  in  the  medicinal  virtues  of  gems.  He  quotes  some 
writers  concerning  this,  probably  either  Epiphanius  or  the  pretended 
Evax. 

In  the  eleventh  century  flourished  Marbodus,  Bishop  of  Rennes, 
who  published  a  Lapidarium  dealing  mostly,  but  not  originally  (ex- 
cept for  putting  his  cribbings  into  hexameters),  with  the  medical  and 
magical  properties  of  stones. 

The  tendency  during  the  Middle  Ages  to  emphasize  this  rather 
than  the  scientific  or  artistic  side  of  the  subject  has  occasioned  the 
loss  through  neglect  of  many  really  valuable  works,  such  as  those  of 
Socatus,  Sudines  and  Zenophemis,  the  main  authorities  of  Pliny. 

The  Lapidarium  of  Marbodus  is  the  last  work  to  treat,  however 
imperfectly,  of  the  natural  history  of  stones.  After  him  came  the 
sigils,  borrowed  from  the  Arabians  and  the  Jews,  in  which  the  signs 
on  gems,  astrological  and  the  like,  are  of  more  importance  than  the 
stones  themselves.  For  instance:  Goat  engraved  on  chalcedony 
tendeth  to  the  getting  of  wealth.  Keep  this  in  thy  money-box  and 
thou  shalt  always  be  rich. 

From  the  eleventh  to  the  fifteenth  centuries,  this  sort  of  thing 
prevailed.  Then  in  1609,  after  a  few  sporadic  writers  in  brief  treat- 
ises did  something  for  mineralogy,  came  Aselmus  de  Boot,  a  native 
of  Antwerp,  physician  to  Rudolph  II.,  who  published  "De  Gemmis  et 
Lapidibus."  This  volume  breathes  the  very  spirit  of  the  times  in  the 
way  it  clings  to  the  medicinal  properties  of  stones  as  against  their 
magical  powers.  He  illustrates  clearly  the  strange  struggle  then 
going  on  between  different  kinds  of  superstition  and  common  sense ; 
for  while  speaking  respectfully  of  their  medical  virtues,  denouncing 
the  magical,  he  at  the  same  time  displays  much  critical  knowledge  in 
his  attempts  to  identify  the  gems  known  to  the  ancients  by  names 
transferred  to  others  in  modern  times ;  and  it  was  naturally  a  satis- 
faction to  King,  who  patiently  compiled  this  list,  to  find  De  Boot 
agreeing  with  himself  on  many  points,  though  his  own  investiga- 
tion was  made  from  an  independent  point  of  view. 

Incorporated  with  De  Boot's  works,  in  its  second  edition,  1647, 
is  the  text  of  Theophrastus,  with  a  commentary,  and  another  shorter 
treatise,  "De  Gemmis,"  by  A.  de  Laet,  dedicated  to  Elizabeth,  daugh- 
ter of  the  unfortunate  Frederick,  King  of  Bohemia,  and  grand- 
1  daughter  to  James  I.  of  England. 

"Both  treatises,"  says  King,  "have  been  the  source  whence  sub- 
sequent writers  on  precious  stones  have  drawn  all  that  is  valuable 
in  their  pages,  and  that  without  acknowledging  their  obligations." 

King's  plan,  like  theirs,  was  to  combine  the  ancient  with  the 
modern  natural  history  of  the  subject,  a  thing  not  attempted  by  later 
mineralogists,  whose  writings  are  either  purely  scientific  or  else  from 
the  standpoint  of  trade. 

8 


His  own  object,  King  says,  was  first  to  establish  a  sound  system 
of  nomenclature  in  the  antique  department;  to  define  each  species 
with  precision ;  to  consider  all  these  substances  in  their  bearings  upon 
art  and  history;  and  lastly,  "to  supply  accurate  guidance  to  the 
admirer  in  our  own  days  of  these  the  choicest  of  Nature's  treasures." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  many  in  the  above  summary  were 
either  clergymen  or  physicians.  King  himself,  author  of  several  valu- 
able books  on  antique  gems,  for  one.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that  a 
jeweler  publishes  his  more  exact  if  less  "literary"  knowledge.  Yet 
the  only  important  works  since  1875,  when  King  disappeared  from 
public  view,  are  by  mineralogists  and  dealers  in  precious  stones.  As 
an  elegant  study  for  men  of  leisure,  the  subject  seems  to  have  passed. 

Only  a  few  men  within  the  last  half  century  have  written  author- 
itatively on  stones  besides  King,  whose  specialty  was  carved  gems. 
Among  these  are  Hodder  M.  Westropp,  the  archaeologist ;  Dr.  Max 
Bauer,  with  typical  Teutonic  thoroughness  and  detail,  on  precious 
stones;  Emanuel,  Streeter,  W.  R.  Cattelle  and  George  Frederick 
Kunz,  jewelers  and  connoisseurs  of  yesterday  and  to-day. 


CARVED  GEMS. 


For  nearly  three  thousand  years  "gem"  meant  something  alto- 
gether different  from  what  it  does  to-day.  In  archaeology  it  does  not 
signify  the  highest  expression  of  a  valuable  mineral,  but  an  engraved 
stone,  whether  precious  or  semi-precious  or  simply  a  bit  of  hard 
primitive  rock.  It  stood,  one  might  say,  not  only  for  personal  decor- 
ation, sometimes  on  helmet,  sword,  shoe,  besides  ear,  neck  or  hand, 
but  for  all  prominent  features  in  world  progress.  Gem  engraving 
recorded  in  an  imperishable  form  the  course  of  history,  the  complica- 
tions of  mythology,  the  development  of  the  arts — to  say  nothing 
of  playing  a  large  part  in  emphasizing  the  authenticity  of  documents 
and  enhancing  the  pomp  of  ceremonies.  At  a  later  period  when  as  an 
art  the  importance  of  carved  gems  had  declined,  they  yet  stood, 
among  men  of  mind  as  well  as  the  credulous,  for  medical  efficacy  and 
magical  power. 

The  comparatively  few  precious  stones  owned  by  the  ancients 
were  so  highly  valued  for  themselves  alone  that  the  engraver  avoided 
them.  Indeed,  quite  apart  from  the  question  of  their  value,  they 
were  a  difficult  medium  for  the  art  of  engraving.  That  found  its 
best  expression  in  much  less  expensive  materials  than  the  diamond, 
ruby,  sapphire  or  emerald;  above  all,  in  the  many  varieties  of  the 
quartz  family,  some  transparent,  more  translucent,  many  opaque. 
Amethyst  and  rock  crystal  represented  the  first ;  sard,  or  Oriental  car- 
nelian,  sardonyx,  the  entire  agate  family,  including  onyx  and  chal- 
cedony, the  second;  the  various  shades  of  jasper,  the  bloodstone  and 
plasma,  the  third.  In  these  less  artistic  if  more  extravagant  times, 
such  substances  for  personal  adornment  are  scarcely  noticed;  but 
through  several  epochs  of  history,  beginning  with  the  Egyptians  and 
their  rude  cylinders  2000  B.  C,  spreading  through  Persia,  Asia 
Minor,  Sicily,  Greece  and  Rome,  carved  gems  marked  the  height  of 
civilization  and  refinement. 

First  indicated  by  crude  figures  on  ordinary  stone,  confined  to 
the  seals  of  Egypt  and  Persia,  the  glyptic  art,  as  it  is  called,  so  devel- 
oped and  improved  that  during  the  Greek  period  it  ranked,  as  an  ex- 
pression of  the  beautiful,  with  statuary.  Rome,  under  the  Augustan 
sway,  with  its  eye  on  Greece,  was  also  conspicuous  for  a  great  degree 
of  efficiency ;  but  from  that  time  on  the  art  step  by  step  declined  until 
it  almost  expired.  While  reviving  for  a  few  centuries  under  the 
impetus  of  the  Renaissance,  it  sank  again  into  mere  routine  as  the 
world  in  other  ways  advanced.  The  present  era,  with  tools  which 
guarantee  mechanical  perfection,  sees  this  great  art  again  languish- 
ing unto  death  from  sheer  poverty  of  ideas. 

10 


To  modern  work  there  is  practically  no  worth.  Its  best  estate, 
like  the  celebrated  Poniatowsky  collection,  the  wonder  of  Europe 
until  its  f raudulence  was  exposed,  is  skillful  imitation  of  the  antique. 
Even  that  has  greatly  declined  since  Natter's  or  Poniatowsky's  time. 
While  the  design  may  be  reproduced  by  clever  mimics,  the  stone 
itself  has  that  hard,  brilliant  polish,  that  bold,  unveiled  surface  which 
differentiates  it  at  once  from  such  art  in  its  prime.  The  soft  hand 
polish,  innocent  of  disk  or  wheel,  dependent  entirely  on  emery  and 
"elbow  grease,"  assisted  materially  by  the  passage  of  time,  tells  the 
authentic  article  almost  as  assuredly  as  the  authoritative  testimony  of 
unimpeachable  archaeologists. 

In  those  old  days,  every  man  or  woman  with  any  pretensions  to 
elegance  had  a  seal  ring,  which  was  precisely  that — to  seal  the  wax 
on  letters  or  legal  documents.  Larger  stones  also  were  beautifully 
engraved  for  bracelets,  vases,  plates,  and  other  ornamental  uses, 
either  domestic  or  public,  but  it  is  these  rings  which  appeal  to  us 
most  strongly.  The  barbarians,  after  conquering  and  ravaging  the 
Roman  Empire,  put  these  priceless  relics  of  a  prostrate  civilization 
into  the  melting-pot  for  the  sake  of  the  gold,  throwing  away  the  sup- 
posedly worthless  stones,  and  that  is  why  we  moderns  have  received 
such  a  rich  inheritance — the  ten  thousand  authentic  carved  gems  now 
preserved  in  all  national  and  some  private  museums.  Tossed  aside  by 
the  ignorant  and  the  heedless,  Mother  Earth  kindly  took  them  to  her 
bosom,  to  yield  them  in  time,  through  the  efforts  of  the  patient  arch- 
aeologist, to  more  appreciative  beings. 

Some  plainly  show  the  effects  of  the  fire;  and  likely  cremation 
waS  responsible  for  this  not  less  than  the  vandals'  melting-pot.  More, 
fortunately,  are  damaged  but  little.  Often  they  are  engraved  with 
the  owner's  name,  sometimes  with  the  artist's,  again  with  both.  Then 
there  is  the  Imperial  portrait,  frequently  with  or  without  a  bit  of 
mythology,  an  incident  from  history,  a  scene  in  domestic  life.  All 
touch  our  hearts  as  only  intimate  personal  possessions,  surviving  the 
wrack  of  the  ages,  may  and  can. 

No  picture  or  statue,  no  church,  palace  or  pantheon,  though 
great  in  design  and  rich  in  story,  can  thrill  us  quite  so  keenly  as  these 
bits  of  stones,  covered  with  the'most  significant  designs,  which  once 
graced  the  hand  of  gallant  man  or  lovely  woman.  Small  and  appar- 
ently fragile,  they  have  brought  down  more  vivid  testimony  to 
ancient  customs,  fashions,  wars  and  religions,  national  and  civic 
ambitions  and  achievements,  Imperial  triumphs  and  the  slaves' 
daily  grind,  than  massive  tomes  or  ruined  piles. 

"Gems,"  says  King,  "are  the  sole  imperishable  vehicle  of  ancient 
genius ;  they  alone  preserve  to  us  the  reflex  of  the  statuary,  and  of 
all  of  painting,  in  the  times  from  which  they  have  descended  to  us." 

Another  writer  declares :  "In  the  gems  that  have  been  worn  by 
any  civilized  people,  we  possess  an  epitome  of  that  people's  arts,  their 
religion,  and  their  civilization  in  a  form  at  once  the  most  portable, 
the  most  indestructible  and  the  most  genuine." 

It  therefore  can  readily  be  understood  why  an  expert  in  carved 
gems  must  be  all  and  much  more  than  an  expert  in  precious  stones. 

ii 


He  must  be  able  not  only  to  judge  the  material  itself,  but  the  artistic 
quality  of  the  design ;  and  to  decipher  its  meaning  and  import  must 
be  no  little  of  a  scholar  in  all  classic  lore.  Then,  so  clever  have  been 
the  imitations,  and  at  one  period,  during  the  time  of  Natter,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  so  wholesale  were  the  attachments  to  both  gen- 
uine and  false  antiques  of  the  names  of  distinguished  ancient  artists, 
that  the  whole  study  became  a  mass  of  confusion  from  which  only  the 
life  efforts  of  King  and  his  like  have  partially  extricated  it.  The 
public  as  a  whole  seems  to  take  no  interest  in  this  most  fascinating  of 
all  studies,  but  those  who  pursue  it  even  a  little  way  are  apt  to  suc- 
cumb entirely  to  its  mystery  and  charm.  As  in  Greece,  Italy  and 
Egypt  excavations  are  all  the  time  disclosing  these  tiny  evidences  of 
a  glorious  past,  the  study  is  one  which  lures  across  the  ocean  as  well 
as  into  the  collections  of  our  own  Metropolitan  Art  Museum,  excel- 
lent in  its  way  even  if  bereft  of  some  of  the  splendid  gems  of  Europe. 

Carved  gems  are  divided  into  two  classes,  the  intaglio,  or 
concave  work,  and  the  cameo  or  convex.  The  first  is  produced  on 
any  of  the  semi-precious  stones  mentioned  above,  and  on  a  few  of 
the  precious,  in  low  relief,  as  a  rule  covering  the  entire  surface  except 
the  margin  left  for  setting.  These  intagli  are  small,  generally  for 
rings,  though  they  may  be  constructed  on  a  large  surface  if  desired. 
The  sardonyx,  that  beautiful  expression  of  the  sard  and  onyx,  usually 
in  three  layers,  red,  white  and  brown,  was  the  favorite  medium  in 
ancient  times  for  the  cameo,  the  different  colored  layers  being  taken 
advantage  of  in  every  way  to  produce  the  required  effect.  In  these 
days,  the  cameo  is  popularly  associated  with  a  rather  delicate  shell, 
white  on  a  pink  or  black  background,  but  for  intrinsic  beauty  as  well 
as  durability  there  is  nothing  like  the  design  and  execution  of  the 
ancient  artists  on  stone.  Sardonyx  was  also  used  extensively  for  the 
intaglio. 

A  famous  stone  cameo  was  the  sardonyx  on  which  was  carved 
the  portrait  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  set  in  a  ring  which  she  presented 
to  the  Earl  of  Essex,  as  a  token  of  her  friendship.  Sentenced  to 
death,  he  sent  this  ring  to  his  cousin,  Lady  Scroop,  to  deliver  to  the 
Queen.  Unfortunately,  the  messenger  delivered  it  to  the  wrong 
person — Lady  Scroop's  sister,  Countess  of  Nottingham,  who  hated 
Essex  and  desired  his  death.  She  kept  the  ring,  Essex  was  executed, 
and  only  on  her  death-bed  did  she  confess  her  treachery  to  the  Queen, 
who,  tradition  says,  shook  the  dying  woman  in  her  fury,  violently 
crying  out :  "God  may  forgive  you,  but  I  cannot !" 

The  tools  by  which  this  delicate  work  was  performed,  in  the 
palmy  days  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  art,  consisted  largely,  both  for 
polishing  and  cutting,  of  corundum,  either  in  sharp  points  attached 
to  instruments  of  iron  for  the  engraving,  or  a  powder  for  the  polish- 
ing. Corundum  is  the  substance  which  crystalizes  into  sapphire,  and 
which  in  an  amorphous  state  forms  emery,  the  ancient  stone  of 
Naxos.  Next  to  diamond  it  is  the  hardest  substance  known.  The 
latest  and  most  authoritative  decisions  regarding  diamond,  despite 
the  weighty  opinion  of  King,  have  been  to  the  effect  that  it  was  never 
used  in  engraving  previous  to  the  time  of  Pliny,  in  the  first  century 

12 


of  the  Christian  era.  Corundum,  called  adamas,  took  the  place 
filled  so  universally  in  these  days  by  diamond;  partly  because  the 
diamond,  if  known  at  all,  was  a  very  scarce  stone,  even  among  the 
wealthy,  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  century;  partly  because  the  semi- 
precious stones  could  easily  be  manipulated  by  corundum,  or  even  a 
stone  considerably  less  hard. 

The  scarab  has  its  place  also  among  carved  gems.  It  is  a  beetle, 
cut  cameo  fashion  in  high,  almost  full  relief,  the  underside  flat,  upon 
which  is  engraved  the  intaglio  or  cartouche.  Egypt  was  the  country 
from  which  the  scarab  emanated  in  the  long  ago,  and  it  retains  its 
popularity  there  to  this  day.  The  scarabeus  is  emblematic  of  the 
origin  of  life,  being  supposed  originally  to  reproduce  itself,  each  in 
its  own  person.  At  the  time  of  the  greatest  prosperity  in  Etruria, 
there  was  close  commercial  relation,  via  Phoenicia,  between  that 
country  and  Egypt.  Hence  the  prevalence  of  the  scarab  in  Etruria's 
tombs  and  ruins  to  the  present  time.  The  Etruscan  can  be  disting- 
uished from  the  Egyptian  ;n  several  ways,  but  the  most  conspicuous 
characteristic  is  that  while  the  material  of  the  Egyptian  was  lime- 
stone, or  some  equally  inexpensive  substance,  the  Etruscan  in  ninety- 
nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  was  carnelian,  found  in  great  quantities 
in  the  beds  of  Etruria's  streams.  These  are  more  valuable  in  a  sense 
than  the  Egyptian,  but  lack  the  intrinsic  charm  of  the  latter,  the  artis- 
tic coloring  painted  by  skillful  hands  on  an  otherwise  unattractive 
substance,  and  the  highly  interesting  hieroglyphics.  The  intagli  of 
the  Etruscan  are  similar  to  those  on  other  carved  gems  of  Rome, 
scenes  from  mythology  or  history,  but  they  are  by  no  means  as 
ancient  as  the  scarabs  of  Egypt,  some  of  the  latter  dating  back  to  the 
times  of  the  Pharaohs. 

As  the  most  desired  scarabs  are  of  Egyptian  origin,  and  the  most 
beautiful  intagli  those  of  Greece,  so  the  cameo  reached  its  culmina- 
tion under  Roman  influence,  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian. 

The  Greeks,  the  greatest  artists  of  all  time,  always  respected  the 
nude,  while  the  Romans  clung  to  drapery.  "This  requirement  of 
Roman  taste,"  says  Westropp,  "was  very  unfavorable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  beauty  of  this  art,  and  engraved  stones  executed  at  Rome 
evince  this  influence.  The  figures  seldom  trespass  against  the  rules 
of  design,  but  they  are  deficient  in  elegance,  they  seldom  bespeak 
either  genius  or  elevation  of  mind  in  the  artist.  The  ideal,  which  is 
the  soul  of  Greek  composition,  is  never  perceived  in  that  of  the 
Romans;  and  the  art  sensibly  declined  into  that  of  a  servile  imi- 
tation." 

The  Greeks  who  were  attracted  to  Rome,  even  the  great  Dios- 
corides,  had  to  bow  to  this  prejudice  of  the  Romans  in  the  matter  of 
the  nude.  Consequently  the  best  purely  Roman  work  is  largely  in 
portraits,  generally  in  cameo,  and  this  branch  of  the  art,  because 
of  the  Roman  passion  for  portraiture,  both  of  ancestors  and  contem- 
poraries, maintained  itself  long  after  merit  in  the  intaglio  had 
vanished. 

Astrological  gems  attained  extreme  popularity  in  the  later  Impe- 
rial times.  These  display  frequently  the  signs  of  the  zodiac.  Often 

13 


they  plainly  represent  the  owner's  horoscope.  But  many  disclose  the 
zodiacal  sign  of  some  fortunate  great  man.  Hence,  the  frequency  of 
Capricorn,  under  which  the  great  Caesar  Augustus  was  born. 

The  fifth  century  witnessed  the  practical  extinction  of  gem  en- 
graving. For  many  decades  before,  the  downward  tendency  of  this 
art  as  an  art  kept  pace  with  an  increasing  interest  in  it  as  a  medium 
for  talismans,  which  after  the  disappearance  of  anything  like  glyptic 
ability  gradually  resolved  itself  into  the  ill-cut,  badly-designed  Gnbs- 
tic  gems,  on  coarse  jasper  and  loadstones.  These  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  Mithraic  intagli,  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Mithras,  the 
Persian  idea  of  the  sun.  He  is  usually  represented  as  a  young  man 
plunging  his  sword  into  the  throat  of  a  bull,  while  a  dog  licks  up  the 
falling  blood.  The  bull  is  the  earth  which  the  sun  penetrates  with 
heat,  while  the  dog  is  the  things  nourished  thereby.  Cleopatra's  sig- 
net ring  was  an  amethyst,  engraved  with  the  figure  of  Mithras,  sym- 
bol of  the  Divine  Idea,  source  of  Light  and  Life,  as  becomes  the 
most  passionate  woman  of  history. 

The  Gnostic  belief,  which  started  among  certain  sects  in  Egypt, 
the  East  and  the  Roman  Empire,  during  the  second  century,  but  did 
not  hold  full  sway  till  three  or  four  hundred  years  later,  was  that  the 
stones  themselves,  with  the  symbols  engraved  upon  them,  exerted 
great  influence  on  the  mind  and  body,  in  inspiring  love,  frustrating 
the  evil  eye,  or  curing  diseases.  Abraxas  is  the  name  given  to  the 
most  conspicuous  of  these  deities,  the  earliest  of  which  are  the  Egyp- 
tian, with  the  good  genius  Kneph,  a  snake  with  lion's  head,  the  crea- 
tive spirit,  or  sun ;  then  Seth,  the  evil  deity  of  the  Semitic  tribes,  a 
demon  with  an  ass's  head;  and  last,  the  god  Abraxas,  the  supreme 
solar  deity,  with  the  head  of  a  cock,  sacred  to  the  sun,  a  human 
body  clad  in  a  cuirass,  with  serpents  instead  of  legs.  About  all  these 
deities  were  cabalistic  signs  or  letters,  as  crudely  cut  as  the  images 
themselves,  laden  with  import. 

Abraxas,  as  the  good  spirit,  was  supposed  to  be  in  continual 
conflict  with  Seth,  the  evil  one,  both  representing  the  two  antagonis- 
tic principles  in  nature.  In  the  Gnostic  creed  the  Devil  was  regarded 
as  the  creator  of  the  world,  and  was  therefore  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance, either  in  this  life  or  the  next.  Matter,  as  they  looked  at  it,  was 
from  its  nature  evil,  consequently  the  supreme  deity,  the  type  of  the 
good,  could  not  be  its  author. 

Intagli  farther  back  than  the  Gnostic  symbols,  indeed  in  the 
intelligent  time  of  Hadrian,  in  the  second  century,  present  frequently 
the  head  of  Serapis,  "the  one  god  Serapis,"  whose  worship  was  very 
much  the  fashion  during  that  reign.  Serapis  is  an  Egyptian  deity, 
borrowed  by  the  Romans ;  and  under  Hadrian  a  favorite  object  of 
worship  was  the  double  god,  Jupiter  Serapis — the  Roman  Jupiter,  or 
Zeus,  assuming  the  attributes  of  the  Egyptian  spirit,  who  presided 
over  the  dead.  He  is  usually  represented  with  a  modius  on  his  head, 
the  modius  being  a  peck  measure. 

The  subjects  of  ancient  gems,  indeed,  embrace  the  whole  world 
of  ancient  art,  and  follow  the  laws  of  its  development  in  logical 

14 


sequence,  animal  forms  being  succeeded  by  deities,  these  again  by  the 
striking  deeds  and  attributes  of  heroes  and  myths,  and  finally  by  por- 
traits, historical  representations  and  allegories. 

One  habit  of  the  ancients  in  the  matter  of  carved  gems  the 
moderns  are  now  imitating  in  the  gold  settings  for  precious  stones — 
that  which  once  was  engraved  upon  the  stones  themselves  being  now 
wrought  in  the  metal  surrounding  them.  That  is,  bacchanalian  sub- 
jects were  often  engraved  on  amethyst,  supposed  to  prevent  intoxica- 
tion ;  marine,  on  beryl,  the  gem  of  the  sea ;  martial,  on  the  fiery  red 
sard  or  jasper;  rural,  on  green  jasper  or  prase;  celestial  on  the  pure 
chalcedony. 

The  great  classic  gem  engravers  of  ancient  times  were  followed 
by  gradually  deteriorating  talent  till  the  art  fell  to  its  lowest  estate. 
It  was  practically  lost  during  the  general  fall  of  the  arts  under  the 
Byzantine  Empire  in  the  ninth  century.  But  with  the  rise  of  Lorenzo 
de  Medici  a  new  impetus,  under  his  patronage,  was  observed.  A 
number  of  Italians,  never  equal  to  their  ancestors,  worked  with  more 
or  less  success  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  a  little 
later  than  this  that  Nassaro  of  Verona,  who  engraved  under  Francis 

I,  produced  a  crucifixion  on  heliotrope.     The  ancients  believed  the 
red  spots  on  green  jasper,  their  heliotrope,  our  bloodstone,  to  be  the 
life  blood  of  Phaeton,  the  god  of  the  sun,  overturned  and  wounded  by 
his  chariot  in  the  sky,  hence  "heliotrope,"  from  helium,  the  sun.     In 
this  remarkable  work  of  Nassaro's,  the  red  spots  seemed  drops  of 
blood  issuing  from  the  wounds  of  Christ — a  striking  but  rather  de- 
generate application  of  the  art. 

Next,  the  Germans,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  under  Rudolph 

II,  for  whom  Lehmann  engraved  at  Vienna,  became  interested  in  the 
subject.     Natter,  of  Nuremburg,  who  died  in  1763,  was  celebrated 
for  his  intagli,  really  very  beautiful,  but  now  pronounced  by  the  best 
authorities  to  be  merely  imitations  of  the  antique.     In  the  nineteenth 
century,  a  few  English  engravers  made  themselves  felt,  but  the 
modern  lover  of  carved  gems  would  exchange  all  subsequent  works 
for  one  little  subject  by  Evodus  or  Discorides,  or  even  a  far  more 
humble  artist  flourishing  any  time  between  400  B.  C.  and  the  end  of 
the  Augustan  period,  say  200  A;  D.     It  was  around  the  former  date 
that  fine  gem  engravers  and  their  exquisite  works  were  ranked  high 
among  men  and  achievements  of  the  times,  sung  and  celebrated  by 
musicians  and  court  poets,  even  by  kings  themselves.    It  was  in  these 
halcyon  days  of  the  art  that  Theodorus  engraved  the  signet  ring  of 
Polycrates ;  that  Mithridates  founded  the  first  royal  cabinet  of  gems ; 
that  Alexander  the  Great  would  allow  no  artist  but  Pyrogoteles  to 
engrave  his  royal  countenance,  and  that  only  on  an  emerald.      It 
was   under  this   monarch,    indeed,   that   the   Hellenic   glyptic   art 
reached  its  climax,  and  was  able  to  sustain  itself,  by  more  or  less 
transplantation  to  Rome,  on  a  high  plane  of  excellence  till  the  fall  of 
the  Caesars. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  the  absorption  in  gems  of  all  kinds  pre- 
vailed to  such  an  extent  as  to  border  on  fanaticism.  From  the 
lordly  diamond  down  to  the  humble  agate,  each  possessed  some 

15 


special  significance  and  power.  Kings  not  less  than  slaves  clung  to 
their  amulets  and  talismans. 

Farther  back  still,  the  ruby,  sapphire  and  zircon,  divided  into 
male  and  female,  as  they  were  intense  in  color  or  weak,  were  sup- 
posed in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  to  propagate  their  kind.  They  were 
classed  among  the  things  endowed  with  life.  Even  when  this  notion 
passed  away,  the  belief  in  their  supernatural  powers  prevailed. 

Not  till  mediaeval  times  did  birthstones  come  in,  but  they  have 
increased  in  favor  ever  since,  and  to-day  are  receiving  large  attention 
from  the  trade.  It  is  an  amiable  weakness  at  worst,  this  propitiation 
of  a  power  neither  to  be  measured  nor  defined,  though  its  actual 
office  may  be  no  more  than  by  suggestion  to  kindle  possibilities  within 
ourselves. 


16 


STONES  IN  THE  BIBLE. 


How  the  power,  the  wonder,  of  gems  makes  itself  felt  in  the 
Bible !  It  meets  and  mingles  with  the  stern  majesty  of  the  truth  like 
a  vital,  living  thing.  Those  strong  men  of  God  surrendered  to  the 
enchantment  of  emerald  or  ruby  as  never  to  that  of  woman  or  wine. 
The  love  of  sparkle  and  color  was  a  weakness  of  the  flesh  for  which 
they  were  not  called  by  conscience  to  account. 

Some  of  them  did  not  know  exactly  what  they  were  talking 
about — as  when  St.  John,  in  his  vision  of  the  Holy  Jerusalem,  de- 
scribed her  light  as  "like  unto  a  stone  most  precious,  even  like  a  jas- 
per stone,  clear  as  crystal." 

Not  only  was  jasper,  even  in  those  days,  when  gems  were  com- 
paratively rare,  far  from  "a  stone  most  precious,"  but  as  it  is  always 
opaque,  an  impure  form  of  quartz,  it  could  hardly,  even  in  a  vision, 
seem  clear. 

But  if  you  leave  mineralogy  for  poetry,  then  indeed  you  are  well 
rewarded.  There  are  few  passages  in  all  literature  on  precious 
stones  more  beautiful  than  some  in  the  Testaments,  both  Old  and 
New.  The  high  art  born  of  the  sincere  soul,  the  single  purpose,  pene- 
trates these  deathless  writings  in  every  part. 

Daniel  sees  in  his  vision  "a  certain  man,"  who  is  the  Lord,  and 
who  fills  him  with  both  weakness  and  strength.  Him,  in  all  rever- 
ence, as  he  suddenly  appeared,  after  the  prophet's  long  fast,  he  thus 
describes : 

His  body  also  was  like  aJjeryl.  and  his  face  as  the  appearance  of 
lightning,  and  his  eyes  as  lamps"  oVfire,  and  his  arms  and  his  feet  like 
in  color  to  polished  brass,  and  the  voice  of  his  words  like  the  voice 
of  a  multitude. 

Again  in  "The  Song  of  Solomon,"  the  beryl  illumines  a  passage 
of  similar  import  and  beauty : 

His  hands  are  as  gold  rings  set  with  the  beryl;  his  belly  is  as 
bright  ivory  overlaid  with  sapphires. 

This  my  beloved,  and  tm's  my  iriend,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem ! 

Poor  old  patient  long-suffering  Job  through  all  his  trials  held 
tight  to  Wisdom  and  reckoned  her  above  all  earthly  things,  even 
above  the  most  precious  of  stones : 

As  for  the  earth,  out  of  it  cometh  bread;  and  under  it  is  turned 
up  as  it  were  fire ; 

The  stones  of  it  are  the  place  ofjsapphires ;  and  it  hath  dust  of 
gold. 

There  is  a  path  which  no  fowl  knoweth,  and  which  the  vulture's 
eye  hath  not  seen: 

The  lion's  whelps  have  not  trodden  it,  nor  the  fierce  lion  passed 
by  it. 


He  putteth  his  hand  upon  the  rock;  he  overturneth  the  moun- 
tains by  the  roots. 

He  cutteth  out  rivers  among  the  rocks;  and  his  eye  seeth  every 
precious  thing. 

He  bindeth  the  floods  from  overflowing;  and  the  thing  that  is 
hid  bringeth  he  forth  to  light. 

But  where  shall  wisdom  be  found?  and  where  is  the  place  of 
understanding  ? 

Man  knoweth  not  the  price  thereof ;  neither  is  it  found  in  the  land 
of  the  living. 

It  cannot  be  valued  with  the  gold  of  Ophir,  with  the  precious 
onyx,  or  thesafiDiajre. 

11      Wo 'mention  shall  be  made  of  coral,  or  of  pearls :  for  the  price 
of  wisdom  is  above  rubies.  «• —     "— 

Proverbs  continues  the  exaltation  of  wisdom,  as  well  as  its  com- 
parison to  precious  stones,  so  ardently  as  sometimes  to  fall  into  repe- 
tition : 

For  wisdom  is  better  than  rubies;  and  all  things  that  may  be 
desired  are  not  to  be  comparecfto  it. 

She  is  more  precious  than  rubies :  and  all  the  things  thou  canst 
desire  are  not  to  be  compared  unto"  her. 

There  is  gold,  and  a  multitude  of  rubiesj  but  the  lips  of  knowl- 
edge are  a  precious  jewel. 

Again  does  Proverbs  use  the  most  precious  of  stones  to  make  a 
vivid  comparison,  not  untinged  with  doubt  and  cynicism : 

Who  can  find  a  virtuous  woman?  for  her  price  is  far  above 
rubies. 


rubies. 

"""Behohi 


)lding  Zion's  pitiful  estate,  Jeremiah  breaks  out  into  his 
Lamentations,  and  recalls  that  once — 

Her  Nazarites  were  purer  than  snow,  they  were  whiter  than  milk, 
they  were  more  ruddy  in  body  than  rubies,  their  polishing  was  of  the 
sapphire.  •*- 

Ezekiel's  vision  was  "the  likeness  of  a  throne,  as  the  appear- 
ance of  a  sapphire-stone,"  which  he  saw  "as  the  color  of  amber,  as 
the  appearance  of  fire  round  about  within  it." 

In  Exodus  the  story  runs : 

Then  went  up  Moses,  and  Aaron,  Nadab  and  Abihu,  and  seventy 
of  the  elders  of  Israel; 

And  they  saw  the  God  of  Israel :  and  there  was  under  his  feet  as 
it  were  a  paved  work  of^sapphire-stone,  and  as  it  were  the  body  of 
heaven  in  his  clearness-  ^**^  _ 

In  Isaiah  we  come  again  upon  the  sapphire-stone  used  in  the 
sense  of  a  pavement ;  the  additional  word  "stone"  is  explained  when 
you  know  that  the  sapphire,  or  sapphirus,  of  the  ancients  was  our 
lapis-lazuli — altogether  appropriate,  in  its  size  and  azure  blue,  for 
the  floor  of  heaven. 

Comforting  the  Gentiles,  the  prophet  says,  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  : 

O  thou  afflicted,  tossed  with  tempest,  and  not  comforted,  behold, 
I  will  lay  the  stones  with  fair  colours,  and  lay  the  foundations  with 
^Sagphires. 

And  I  will  make  thy  windows  of  agates,  and  thy  gates  of  car- 
buncles, and  all  thy  borders  of  pleasant  stones. 
^ 18 


Ezekiel,  inveighing  against  Tyrus  as  the  city  of  too  great 
luxury,  cries  out : 

Syria  was  thy  merchant  by  reason  of  the  multitude  of  the  wares 
of  thy  making :  they  were  occupied  in  thy  fairs  with  emeralds,  purple, 
and  embroidered  work,  and  fine  linen,  and  coral,  ana  agStgr*" 

Reproving  the  Prince  of  Tyrus  for  his  impious  pride,  he 
declares : 

Thou  hast  been  in  Eden  the  garden  of  God,  every  precious  stone 
was  thy  covering,  the  sardius,  topaz,  and  the  diamond  the^bexyl,  the 
onyx,  and  the  jasper/'the  sapphire,  the  emerald,  and  the  carbuncle, 

gohfc 

line  in  Jeremiah  is  interesting  because  it  is,  with  one  other, 
the  only  mention  in  the  Bible  of  the  diamond,  which  then  must  have 
been  very  rare,  if  not  wholly  unknown,  yet  is  here  described,  in  its 
use  at  least,  with  the  greatest  accuracy: 

The  sin  of  Judah  is  written  with  a  pen  of  iron,  and  with  the  point 
of  adiamond. 

These  include  all  references  to  precious  stones  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, except  the  High  Priest's  Breastplate.  Aaron,  the  first  High 
Priest,  tells  what  it  shall  be  in  Exodus  28,  and  describes  it  completed 
in  Exodus  39  : 

Four  square  it  shall  be,  being  doubled,  a  span  shall  be  the  length 
thereof,  and  a  span  shall  be  the  breadth  thereof. 

And  thou  shalt  set  in  it  settings  of  stones;  the  first  row  shall 
be  a  sardius,  a  topaz,  and  a  carbuncle;  this  shall  be  the  first  row. 

And  the   second  row  shall  be  an  emerald,  a  sapphire,  and  a 
diamond. 
\   And  the  third  row  a  ligure,  an  agate,  and  an  amethyst. 

And  the  fourth  row  a  beryl,  and  an  onyx,  and  a  jasper. 
|  And  the  stones  shall  be  with  the  names  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
twelve,  according  to  their  names,  like  the  engraving  of  a  signet ;  every 
one  with  his  name  shall  they  be  according  to  the  twelve  tribes. 

In  the  New  Testament,  except  John's  Vision  in  Revelations, 
precious  stones  are  used  more  frequently  to  point  a  moral  than  to 
adorn  a  tale.  The  Old  Testament  seems  more  mellow,  richer  in 
thought  and  culture,  the  New  stronger  in  religious  zeal,  exortation 
and  practical  application.  Pearls  in  their  purity  greatly  appealed  to 
the  clean,  austere  minds  of  the  Apostles : 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  merchant-man  seeking 


he  had  found  one  pearl  of  great  price,  went  and  sold 
all  he  had,  and  bought  it.       ^"  . 

Again  Matthew  shows  his  reverence  for  these  gifts  of  the  sea : 

Give  not  what  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls 
before  swine.  **  "•"• 


Thus  they  appeared  to  Matthew ;  but  Timothy,  a  minor  disciple, 
evidently  stood  in  fear  of  them,  as  savoring  too  greatly  of  impious 
luxury: 

I  will  therefore  that  men  pray  everywhere,  lifting  up  holy  hands, 
without  wrath  or  doubting. 

In  like  manner  also,  that  women  adorn  themselves  in  modest 
apparel,  with  shamefacedness  and  sobriety;  not  with  broidered  hak, 
or  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array. 


The  following  are  all  the  voice  of  John  in  Revelations,  whether 
inveighing  against  the  evil  of  this  world  or  looking  towards  the 
glory  of  the  life  to  come ; 

So  he  carried  me  away  in  the  spirit  into  the  wilderness :  and  I 
saw  a  woman  sit  upon  a  scarlet-coloured  beast,  full  of  names  of  blas- 
phemy, having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns. 

And  the  woman  was  arrayed  in  purple,  and  scarlet  colour,  and 
decked  with  gold  and  precious  stones  and  pearls,  having  a  golden  cup 
in  her  hands  full  of  abominations.  "1-~ — - 

The  Fall  of  Babylon  he  clearly  forsees,  in  all  its  demoralization 
and  sorrow : 

And  the  merchants  of  the  earth  shall  weep  and  mourn  over  her; 
for  no  man  buyeth  their  merchandise  any  more : 

The  merchandise  of  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones,  and 
of  pearls. 

A  direct  mention  of  jacinth,  or  hyacinth,  the  lyncurium  of  Theo- 
phrastus,  the  ligure  of  the  High  Priest's  Breastplate,  the  zircon  of 
to-day  is  in  another  chapter  of  Revelations: 

I  saw  the  horses  in  the  vision,  and  them  that  sat  on  them  having 

breastplates  of  fire,  and  of  jacinth,  and  brimstone. 

John's  vision  of  the  Throne  of^God  rllns  along  the  same  lines, 
the  most  valued  of  material  things  seeming  all  too  inadequate  to  keep 
pace  with  the  splendor  of  his  dream : 

And  he  that  sat  was  to  look  upon  like  a  Jn°tHgr-ftTH  n  sardine 
stone :  and  there  was  a  rainbow  round  about  the  throne,  in  sight  like 
unto  an  emerald. 

Concerning  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem,  he  who  was  first  in  Jesus' 
affections,  to  whom  lovely  things  evidently  appealed  despite  his 
fierce  zeal  for  The  Cause,  lets  his  imagination  run  riot;  even  if,  as 
with  some  of  the  older  prophets,  the  list  of  wonders  at  last  becomes  a 
bit  categorical : 

And  the  building  of  the  wall  of  it  was  of  jasper :  and  the  city  was 
of  pure  gold,  like  unto  clear  glass. 

And  the  foundations  of  the  wall  were  garnished  with  all  manner 
of  precious  stones.  The  first  foundation  wjj£_jasj)er ;  the  second 
*•  .sapphire:  the  third,  a  chalcedony;  the  fourth,  an  emerald. 

ITTKe  fifth,  sardon3?X,  lliL  sixth,  sardius ;  the  seventh,  chrysolite ; 
the  eighth,  beryl;  the  ninth,  a  topaz;  the  tenth,  a  chrysoprase;  the 
eleventh,  a  jacinth;  the  twelfth,  an  amethyst. 
And  the  twelve  gates  were  twelve  pearls ;  every  several  gate  was 
of  one  pearl:  and  the  street  of  the  city  was  of  pure  gold,  as  it  were 
transparent  glass. 

One  draws  a  long  breath.  Luxury  can  go  no  farther.  This  is 
surely  the  apotheosis  of  gems.  Strange,  how  gold  and  opaque  jasper 
in  his  ecstatic  moods  seem  like  the  clearest  of  crystal  to  St.  John  the 
Divine ;  he  who  was  to  live  to  a  great  age,  when  the  sky  would  be 
gray  and  the  air  chill,  and  all  that  burning  enthusiasm,  clashing  with 
the  hostility  of  unconquerable  materialism,  the  eternal  struggle  for 
precedence  here  and  now,  must  necessarily  become  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  bright  weapon  of  the  youth  who  could  not  conceive 
failure — whose  heart  ached  to  vindicate  his  Master  and  save  the 
World. 

ao 


Before  such  radiant  vision,  such  sublime  faith,  the  modern  is 
without  words;  words  to  express  his  wonder  and  his  awe.  How 
near,  how  very  near,  was  each  one  of  these  chosen  men,  whether  of 
the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  to  his  God.  Will  this  mental  state 
ever  come  again? 

In  the  distracted  world  of  to-day,  the  quick  answer  may  be  "No." 
Yet  what  once  was,  can  be ;  and  in  reaction  from  barren  complexity, 
from  doubt  and  fear,  from  greed,  falsehood  and  shame,  it  does  seem 
at  times  that  the  "open"  if  not  the  "simple"  mind  will  come  again  and 
Truth  prevail. 


21 


FAMOUS  JEWELS. 


The  finding  of  the  Cullinan  or  Premier  diamond,  in  the  Premier 
mine  of  the  Transvaal  Colony,  South  Africa,  on  June  25,  1905,  was 
the  mineral  sensation  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  in  a  sense  of  all 
centuries.  It  was  not  only  the  largest  diamond  the  earth  had  ever 
given  forth,  3034  5/8  international  karats,  but  is  was  of  the  finest 
blue-white  tint  and  practically  flawless. 

What  that  find  must  have  meant  to  Frederick  Wells,  the  surface 
manager,  making  his  daily  rounds,  towards  evening,  only  he  can 
tell.  His  eye  running  along  the  site  of  a  deep  excavation  suddenly 
caught  the  gleam  of  something  flashing  high  on  the  bank.  Climbing 
up,  he  first  tried  to  pull  it  out  with  his  fingers,  then  broke  a  knife 
blade  in  the  process,  by  which  time  he  realized  he  had  hold  of  a  very 
large  stone.  It  was  so  large  that  he  began  to  doubt  that  the  object 
really  was  a  diamond.  He  said  himself :  "When  I  took  a  good  look 
at  the  stone  stuck  there  in  the  pit,  it  suddenly  flashed  across  me  that 
I  had  gone  insane — that  the  whole  thing  was  imaginary.  I  knew  it 
could  not  be  a  diamond." 

Nevertheless,  he  rubbed  the  dirt  off,  tested  the  stone,  pried  it  out 
with  another  blade  of  his  knife  and  carried  it  to  the  office  in  triumph. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  telegraph  flashed  the  news  to  all  parts  of 
the  globe,  and  a  little  later  Mr.  Wells  received  a  present  of  $10,000 
from  the  company. 

After  two  years,  nobody  applying  for  personal  possession  of  such 
an  immense  stone,  it  was  decided  to  present  it  to  King  Edward,  to  be 
held  forever  among  the  crown  jewels. 

In  the  rough,  it  was  said  to  look  like  nothing  so  much  as  an  ordi- 
nary piece  of  ice.  Large  unpolished  stones  have  no  beauty  whatever. 

The  cutting  of  the  diamond,  as  described  by  Dr.  Kunz  in  "The 
Century,"  June,  1909,  was  a  dramatic  event  in  itself:  an  important 
moment  in  the  life  of  several  human  beings — Joseph  Asscher,  of  the 
firm  of  Asscher  Brothers,  Amsterdam,  who  cut  it  with  the  skill  and 
accuracy  of  a  great  artisan ;  Henri  Koe,  to  whom  the  polishing  was 
entrusted,  and  the  King  of  England,  to  whom  it  was  presented,  by  the 
Transvaal  Government,  in  recognition  of  the  grant  of  autonomy  by 
the  English  Government.  The  consideration  is  believed  to  be  $750,- 
000,  three-fifths  of  that  representing  the  legal  tribute  from  the 
diamond  mines  to  the  Colonial  treasury,  the  other  two-fifths  paid  to 
the  mine  owners  in  cash.  It  was  decided  to  divide  the  stone  into 
three  almost  equal  parts.  The  cutting  was  begun  on  Feb.  10,  1908, 
but  not  till  the  end  of  October  was  the  work  completed  on  the  largest 
section  alone.  While  the  cutting  nowadays,  with  the  improved 
methods,  is  both  swift  and  sure,  the  polishing  of  so  hard  a  substance 
is  a  very  slow  process,  though  much  more  rapid  than  half  a  century 

22 


ago.  When  finished,  the  largest  piece,  a  drop  briolette,  was  found  to 
weight  516*/2  karats,  and  was  given  74  facets,  too  little,  some  think, 
to  bring  out  its  full  beauty ;  the  second,  a  square  English  cut  brilliant, 
309  3/16,  with  66  facets ;  the  third  furnishing  several  gems,  varying 
all  the  way  from  92  to  the  most  minute.  Although  the  cutting  of  this 
wonder  was  a  good  advertisement  for  the  firm,  Asscher  Brothers  are 
said  to  have  lost  money  by  it. 

The  larger  jewels  were  mounted  by  the  court  jeweler  so  they 
can  be  worn  either  in  the  crown  of  the  King  on  state  occasions  or  as  a 
necklace  by  the  Queen. 

Previous  to  the  Cullinan,  the  largest  diamond  in  the  world  was 
the  Excelsior,  found  June  30,  1893,  in  the  Jagersfontein  mine. 
Orange  River  Colony,  under  the  control  of  the  De  Beers  Company, 
by  a  native,  who  received  $750,  a  horse,  saddle  and  bridle,  equal  to  a 
home  and  business  in  Kaffir  circles.  This  weighed  971  karats  in  the 
rough,  was  the  shape  of  a  broken  icicle,  and  of  the  coveted  blue-white. 
It  was  kept  for  twelve  years,  with  the  hope  that  it  would  be  pur- 
chased entire,  but  no  buyer  forthcoming  was  broken  up.  The  same 
cutter,  Henri  Koe,  and  the  same  firm,  Asscher  Brothers,  managed 
this. 

At  the  critical  moment  the  cleaver  struck  fourteen  blows  before 
the  diamond  parted.  "The  owners  were  anxious  as  to  the  outcome," 
says  the  spectator,  "and  some  of  them  had  drops  of  perspiration  on 
their  brows  as  big  as  peas.  The  cleaver  was  as  cool  as  if  he  were 
cutting  an  apple,  knowing  that  if  the  crystal  parted,  it  would  be  only 
where  he  wished." 

The  Cullinan  is  evidently,  according  to  the  best  authorities, 
broken  off  from  perhaps  a  still  larger  piece,  the  stone  at  the  breakage 
showing  evidences  of  internal  strain,  but  the  Excelsior,  supposed  to 
be  of  the  same  construction,  has  been  proved  to  be  complete.  It  is  an 
interesting  question  whether  the  other  half  of  the  Cullinan  may  not 
sometime  be  found.  Think  of  a  diamond  weighing  7,000  karats ! 

The  famous  Braganza  of  Portugal  turning  out  to  be  a  white 
topaz,  these  two  South  African  stones,  are  undoubtedly  the  world's 
greatest  diamonds ;  but  there  are  a  number  of  others,  by  no  means 
small,  which  have  played  a  part  in  history,  and  are  talked  about  to 
this  day. 

Such  is  the  Great  Mogul,  seen  by  Tavernier  in  1665,  who  says  it 
was  found  near  Golconda  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
It  weighed  7S71A  karats  in  the  rough. 

What  became  of  this  is  unknown,  unless  it  may  be  re-incarnated, 
as  some  high  authorities  believe,  in  the  Orloff  and  the  Kohinoor. 
With  the  authentic  testimony  of  relative  weights  and  dates,  this  seems 
highly  probable,  if  not  proved.  The  upper  part  of  the  Great  Mogul 
is  almost  precisely  like  the  Orloff  in  shape,  size  and  weight,  while  the 
Kohinoor  as  it  came  to  the  English  might  easily  have  been  cut  from 
the  bottom.  It  was  seen  by  Tavernier  after  cutting,  when  he  says 
it  weighed  279  9/16  karats,  though  late  writers  have  disputed  this, 
because  of  the  variations  at  that  time  between  the  Oriental  and  Euro- 
pean measures.  Cattelle  is  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  the  Orloff 

23 


and  the  Great  Mogul  are  identical,  and  that  the  Kohinoor  was  a  large 
cleavage  from  the  same  crystal,  taken  when  the  cutter  reduced  it 
about  five  hundred  karats  by  simply  faceting  it  to  a  high-domed  rose. 
"This  theory,"  he  says,  "would  reasonably  account  for  the  unneces- 
sary loss  of  weights  and  the  confusion  of  traditions  which  in  varying 
proportions  have  been  attached  alike  to  both  stones." 

In  1739  Nadir  Shah,  formerly  King  of  Persia,  carried  off  the 
treasures  of  Delhi,  the  "Great  Mogul"  among  them,  to  Khorassan. 
After  that  nothing  is  positively  known  about  this  gem.  In  1747 
Nadir  Shah  was  assassinated. 

The  OrlofF,  without  history,  but  heavy  with  fables,  appeared  on 
the  scene  at  Amsterdam,  in  1791,  when  it  was  sold  to  Count  Orloff, 
for  Catherine  II,  and  has  ever  since,  in  the  sceptre  of  the  Czar,  been 
the  brightest  ornament  among  the  jewels  of  the  Russian  crown.  In 
the  effort  to  create  human  interest  in  gems,  this  diamond  has  been 
referred  to  as  a  gift  to  Catherine  from  Gregorio  Orloff,  then  in  dis- 
favor with  his  royal  mistress,  and  ever  seeking  reconciliation  and  re- 
instatement. It  is  stated  with  some  humor  that  she  "inserted  it  firmly 
in  her  sceptre"  and  left  the  giver  to  wander  in  outer  darkness  till  he 
went  mad  and  died.  Sordid  as  Catherine  might  be,  she  was  not 
quite  like  that.  It  is  true  that  Gregory  died  mentally  disjointed, 
never  regaining  the  place  he  once  held  in  the  Empress'  regard.  Why 
should  he,  when  not  once  but  thrice  he  had  been  both  politically  indis- 
creet and  flagrantly  unfaithful?  But  his  death  occurred  in  1783, 
eight  years  before  the  transaction  of  the  diamond,  when  Alexis 
Orloff,  brother  of  Gregory  and  Admiral  of  her  fleet,  bought  it  for  the 
Empress  as  agent.  Besides,  Catherine  was  sixty-seven  at  this  time, 
five  years  before  her  death,  and  her  faith  in  jewels  was  likely  stronger 
than  in  men. 

The  history  of  the  Kohinoor  is  more  clear.  From  the  time  in 
1739,  when  it  was  wrested  from  Aurungzebe  by  Nadir  Shah  in  the 
sack  of  Delhi  and  carried  off  to  Persia,  until  its  final  presentation  to 
Queen  Victoria  on  July  3,  1850,  it  had  been  attended  by  every  sort  of 
trouble  and  violence.  The  Hindoos  have  a  firm  belief  that  the  Kohi- 
noor brings  certain  ruin  to  the  person  or  dynasty  possessing  it. 
After  its  presentation  to  Victoria,  England  nearly  lost  India,  and 
when  the  recent  troubles  came  up  many  a  superstitious  Briton  trem- 
bled in  his  shoes.  As  far  back  as  1860,  a  man  of  the  finest  intelligence 
wrote :  "Within  ten  years  it  has  brought  about  the  all  but  total  loss 
of  India  to  the  British  crown,  in  which  beams  its  malignant  lustre, 
lighting  up  a  very  inauspicious  future  for  that  region,  fated  apparent- 
ly ever  to  be  disturbed  by  the  measures  of  ignorant  zealots  at  home 
and  the  plots  of  discontented  and  over-powerful  allies  in  the  country 
itself." 

The  Kohinoor  when  brought  from  the  East  weighed  186^ 
karats;  after  recutting,  106%.  It  is  an  impressive  stone,  but  not  of 
the  first  color  or  quality.  The  Orloff  weighs  193^4  karats,  and  is  fine, 
clean  and  very  brilliant.  Could  the  lower  half  of  a  gem  be  of  a  dif- 
ferent quality  from  the  upper  half?  If  not,  this  rather  disturbs  the 
theory  about  the  Great  Mogul. 

24 


When  the  Orloff  was  sold  to  Russia  in  1791,  it  brought  a  million 
Dutch  guldens,  or  $400,000.  The  beautiful  Hope  diamond,  of  a  per- 
fect sapphire  blue  color,  one  of  the  rarest  of  gems,  when  sold  at  auc- 
tion in  Paris,  1909,  brought  only  $85,000,  almost  exactly  what  it  cost 
Henry  Thomas  Hope,  a  London  banker,  in  1830.  This  seems  incred- 
ibly low  for  so  remarkable  a  stone,  weighing  44^  karats,  and  of  an 
incomparable  hue.  One  of  this  color  was  brought  by  Tavernier  from 
India  in  the  sixties  of  the  seventeenth  century  for  Louis  XIV.  of 
France.  After  cutting,  it  weighed  67l/%  karats.  This,  with  others, 
was  stolen  from  the  French  crown  jewels  amidst  the  horrors  of  the 
Revolution  and  never  found.  Still,  a  drop-shaped  stone  of  the  same 
color  from  the  Duke  of  Brunswick's  collection  was  sold  at  Geneva  in 
1874  for  $3,400,  while  Edwin  W.  Streeter,  the  jeweler  of  London, 
independently  bought  a  karat  of  precisely  the  same  shade  for  $1,500. 
Allowing  for  the  loss  of  weight  in  recutting,  it  seems  almost  certain 
that  these  three  stones  represent  the  larger  one  purchased  by  the 
Grand  Monarch  more  than  two  centuries  ago. 

The  banker  Hope,  when  it  came  into  his  hands,  apparently  with- 
out history,  through  a  London  dealer  in  1830,  paid  for  the  stone 
which  bears  his  name  $87,000.  He  gave  it  to  his  daughter,  when  she 
married  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  and  she  in  turn  presented  it  to  her 
second  son,  Lord  Francis  Hope,  who,  after  a  wild  career,  became 
involved  with  May  Yohe  and  married  her  in  1894.  After  the  divorce 
in  1901  Lord  Francis,  to  satisfy  creditors,  sold  the  diamond  for 
$168,000,  it  was  said,  to  Simon  Frankel,  who  tried  to  dispose  of  it  in 
1907,  when  the  firm  of  Frankel  Sons  &  Co.  got  into  financial  difficul- 
ties. It  was  bought  by  Selim  Habib,  who  said  the  price  was  $400,000, 
but  he  too  became  embarrassed  and  offered  it  for  sale  at  auction  in 
Paris,  June,  1908,  subsequently  withdrawing  it  and  selling  it  at  last 
to  a  jeweler  named  Rosenau,  of  9  Rue  Chauchat,  in  whose  posses- 
sion it  was  in  November,  1909,  though  reported  as  lost  with  Selim 
Habib  on  the  French  mail  steamship  off  Singapore. 

On  a  grand  occasion,  February  19,  1715,  six  months  before  his 
death,  Louis  XIV.,  while  giving  audience  to  the  Persian  Ambassador, 
appeared  in  a  black  suit  embroidered  in  gold  and  ornamented  by  a 
kingdom's  worth  of  brilliants,  with  a  dark  blue  diamond  suspended 
from  a  light  blue  ribbon  about  his  neck.  It  was  a  fixed  belief  with 
Edwin  W.  Streeter,  the  well-known  English  jeweler,  that  this  and  the 
blue  stone  stolen  in  1792  with  the  rest  of  the  French  regalia  from  the 
Garde  Meuble  were  the  same.  In  his  book  on  "Precious  Stones" 
(published  exactly  one  century  after  the  theft)  he  devotes  four  pages 
and  a  colored  illustration  to  a  convincing  argument  that  this  royal 
jewel  lives  again  in  the  Hope,  the  Brunswick,  and  a  one-karat  stone 
owned  by  himself ;  that  these  are  the  Louis  XIV.  blue  diamond  split 
into  three  parts,  so  that  the  thief,  perhaps  one  of  high  Revolutionary 
degree,  could  not  be  traced.  That  the  color  and  weight,  allowing  for 
the  loss  of  recutting,  are  almost  identical,  renders  this  hypothesis 
not  improbable.  At  this  moment  the  unique  and  hapless  Hope 
peacefully  reposes  on  the  fair  shoulders  of  an  American  connoisseur 

25 


in  gems — Mrs.  Edward  B.  McLean  of  Washington — the  insurance 
on  whose  treasures  is  said  to  be  $3,000,000. 

One  of  the  finest  of  diamonds,  absolutely  limpid  and  as  broad  as 
it  is  deep,  is  the  Regent,  or  Pitt.  It  also  was  stolen  from  France 
in  1792,  but  was  restored  and  is  still  among  the  French  Crown 
jewels,  on  exhibition  in  the  Louvre.  It  is  an  Indian  stone,  found 
about  1700,  brought  to  Europe,  and  sold  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
Regent  during  the  minority  of  Louis  XV.,  in  1717.  The  great  Napo- 
leon wore  it  in  the  hilt  of  his  sword,  and  later  used  it  as  a  means  of 
raising  money  from  Holland.  Only  recently  has  the  jewel  been  re- 
deemed. It  was  called  the  "Pitt"  before  the  "Regent"  from  Gov. 
Pitt,  of  Fort  St.  George,  Madras,  grandfather  of  the  future  Earl  of 
Chatham,  who  bought  it  for  something  over  $100,000,  sold  it  to  the 
Regent  for  quadruple,  and  in  1791,  after  recutting  in  London,  though 
reduced  from  410  to  136%  karats,  it  was  valued  at  $2,400,000.  To 
such  an  extent  does  the  price  of  a  rare  gem,  the  Hope  diamond  ex- 
cepted,  increase.  After  various  vicissitudes,  it  is  now  quietly  resting 
in  an  art  gallery,  gazed  at  by  thousands  of  the  gaping  throng  whose 
ancestors,  up  to  their  strange  carnival  of  joy,  knew  its  wonder  only 
by  hearsay. 

Sancy  seems  to  be  a  name  to  conjure  with.  It  has  been  applied 
to  various  stones,  with  considerable  resulting  confusion,  in  the  num- 
ber of  legends  attached.  But  the  real  "Sancy"  was  cut  for  Charles 
the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  the  last  of  the  feudal  lords  to  resist  the 
power  of  the  French  monarchy.  It  was  found  by  a  soldier  on  his 
body  after  the  battle  of  Nancy  and  carried  to  Portugal,  sold  by  the 
King  of  Portugal  to  a  Frenchman,  Baron  Sanci,  and  by  him  sold  to 
Elizabeth  of  England.  Upon  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  it  was 
pawned  by  his  widow  Henrietta,  seeking  shelter  in  France,  to  Cardi- 
nal Mazarin,  who  so  valiantly  fostered  the  infant  art  of  diamond  cut- 
ting, and  by  him  bequeathed  to  Louis  XIV.  At  his  own  coronation, 
it  was  worn  by  Louis  XV.  With  others  it  was  stolen  from  France  in 
1792,  that  halcyon  time  of  thieves,  when  it  was  a  crime  to  be  a  gentle- 
man. Ten  years  later,  it  turned  up  among  the  Spanish  Crown  jewels. 
From  1828  to  1865  it  belonged  to  Prince  DemidofT,  by  whom  it  was 
sold  for  $100,000.  It  was  exhibited  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1867. 
Then  it  went  back  to  India,  not  only  once  but  twice,  via  Paris,  that 
clearing  house  of  priceless  treasures.  Its  wanderings  are  ended  for 
the  present,  so  it  is  said,  through  the  agency  of  William  Waldorf 
Astor,  who  purchased  it  in  London  for  his  son's  bride.  But  much  is 
uncertain  about  this  stone,  because  of  its  many  namesakes.  The 
original  "Sancy"  weighed  53^4  karats,  and  may  be  wandering  yet. 
It  is  said  to  be  the  first  diamond  cut  in  Europe. 

The  Polar  Star,  a  stone  of  great  purity,  weighing  forty  karats, 
and  once  the  property  of  the  Emperor  Paul,  now  belongs  to  the 
Princess  Yassopouff. 

In  Persia,  two  superb  stones  of  rose  cut,  each  between  one  and 
two  hundred  karats,  bear  poetic  titles  for  which  the  English  equiva- 
lents are  "Sea  of  Light"  and  "Crown  of  the  Moon." 

The  Florentine  belongs  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  It  is  of  a 

26 


beautiful  lemon  color,  cut  to  a  double  rose.  This  diamond  also  is  said 
to  have  been  owned  by  Charles  the  Bold  and  lost  by  him  in  battle. 
About  all  legends  cling,  but  few  are  well  authenticated.  The  Floren- 
tine weighs  133>£  karats. 

Another  Russian  Crown  jewel,  often  confounded  with  the  Orloff, 
weighs  120  karats.  It  was  purchased  by  Catherine  II.  of  an  Arme- 
nian, in  1774,  for  450,000  rubles,  a  life  pension  of  4,000  rubles,  and  a 
patent  of  nobility.  This  stone  once  belonged  to  a  Shah  of  Persia, 
and  is  said  to  be  flawless  and  the  size  of  a  pigeon's  egg. 

The  Nassak,  held  for  a  long  time  in  the  temple  of  Nassak,  and 
stolen  by  a  French  deserter,  was  sold  through  Emanuel,  the  English 
jeweler,  about  1832,  to  the  Marquis  of  Westminster  for  $36,000,  and 
is  still  with  that  family.  It  weighed,  after  recutting,  79^  karats. 

The  Eugenie  is  a  fine  brilliant  of  unknown  origin,  presented  by 
Catherine  II.  to  her  favorite,  the  despicable  Potemkin.  It  was 
bought  from  his  descendants  by  Napoleon  III.  for  the  Empress.  It 
is  now  owned  by  the  Gaikwar  of  Baroda. 

The  Dresden  Green  Diamond  is  fine  and  flawless.  Its  color  is 
said  to  be  light,  though — that  of  a  green  beryl.  It  has  been  owned 
by  Saxony  since  1753,  and  is  now  in  the  Green  Vaults  at  Dresden. 
Augustus  the  Strong,  who  had  a  fancy  for  jewels  rather  unusual  in 
a  manly  Teuton,  and  who  owned  the  White  Saxon  Brilliant,  one  of 
the  finest  known,  paid  $45,000  for  the  Dresden  Green.  Its  weight  is 
disputed,  but  is  given  by  Max  Bauer,  who  ought  to  know,  as  forty 
karats. 

A  fine  green,  the  finest  ever  found,  like  a  brilliant  emerald,  but 
small,  slightly  over  a  karat,  was  bought  in  1860  for  $1,000,  sold  some 
years  later  by  Mr.  Streeter  for  $1,500,  and  later  still  was  disposed  of 
in  New  York  for  $7,000. 

The  Halphen  Red  was  obtained  by  the  same  jeweler  at  about  the 
same  time  for  $4,000.  It  was  a  ruby  red  and,  despite  rumors  as  to 
such  in  the  Russian  and  Austrian  Imperial  treasuries,  is  the  sole  au- 
thentic specimen  of  any  deeper  tint  than  pale  rose  known  to  the 
world.  It  is  called  "a  gem  on  fire,"  haunting  the  public,  yet  never  to 
be  gazed  upon — for  it  has  passed  into  the  oblivion  of  private  owner- 
ship. 

The  Star  of  the  South  was  found  in  the  western  part  of  Minas 
Geraes,  Brazil,  July,  1853.  It  was  cut  to  a  brilliant  of  125>^  karats 
and  sold  to  the  Gaikwar  of  Baroda  for  $400,000.  It  is  the  largest 
diamond  produced  by  Brazil. 

The  Star  of  South  Africa  was  the  first  large  diamond  found  at 
the  Cape,  in  1869.  It  is  a  river  stone,  and  equal  in  quality  to  those 
of  India  and  Brazil.  It  was  sold  to  the  Countess  of  Dudley  and  is 
known  as  the  "Dudley  Diamond."  It  weighed  after  cutting  46^ 
karats. 

Dr.  Kunz  in  his  "American  Gems"  says  there  are  three  diamonds 
owned  in  the  United  States  weighing  55%>  77  and  125^  karats,  the 
last  the  Tiffany  diamond,  the  handsomest  yellow  known. 

Four  of  the  ten  Mazarins  of  the  French  Crown  jewels,  are 
owned  in  the  United  States,  and  a  brilliant  of  the  luxurious  Catharine 

27 


of  Russia.  Besides  these  diamonds  there  are  privately  owned  in  our 
country  a  ruby  weighing  9^  karats,  worth  over  $33,000,  several 
valued  at  more  than  $10,000,  an  emerald  at  $12,000  and  pearls  galore. 
Several  families  possess  jewels  ranking  in  perfection  above  royal  col- 
lections. None,  however,  can  vie  with  the  latter  in  historic  interest. 

The  list  of  well-known  colored  stones  is  not  as  long  as  the  dia- 
monds, which  includes,  perhaps,  a  dozen  more  than  are  mentioned 
here. 

There  are  few  famous  rubies  known  to  Europeans.  The  appre- 
ciative Catherine  received  one,  from  Gustavus  III.  of  Sweden,  the 
size  of  a  pigeon's  egg,  when  he  visited  Russia  in  1777.  It  was  cut 
en  cabochon,  which  is  almost  a  confession  of  marked  imperfections, 
and  had  "Thelk  Lephy"  engraved  on  one  end. 

Rudolph  II.  of  Germany  had  one  the  size  of  a  hen's  egg, 
valued  at  60,000  ducats. 

There  is  mention  of  two  or  three  immense  rubies,  weighing  from 
one  to  two  thousand  karats,  but  these  were  not  fully  transparent. 

The  two  best  known  in  Europe  were  sold  to  private  parties  in 
1875,  after  being  recut  to  thirty-two  and  thirty-eight  karats.  If  it 
had  not  been  for  political  troubles  in  Burmah,  the  Occident  would 
never  have  had  an  opportunity  to  acquire  them,  says  Cattelle.  They 
are  gems  of  great  beauty. 

The  Black  Prince  Ruby  in  the  Imperial  crown,  Tower  of  Lon- 
don, is  simply  a  spinel — more  valuable  for  its  story  than  anything 
else.  It  is  not  every  day  that  one  may  look  on  an  object  worn  by  a 
King  of  England  in  his  helmet  at  the  battle  of  Agincourt.  This  was 
an  Indian  stone,  cut  en  cabochon,  and  presented  to  the  Black  Prince 
by  the  King  of  Castile. 

Cat's-eyes  of  large  size  have  been  sold  in  recent  years,  but  to 
private  parties,  one  of  golden  brown,  with  a  remarkably  distinct  ray, 
for  a  stone  of  80^  karats,  finding  a  purchaser  in  the  United  States. 

Perhaps  the  largest  and  finest  emerald  ever  discovered  is  owned 
by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire.  It  weighs  1350  karats,  and  is  of  fine 
color,  clean,  transparent,  but  uncut. 

In  the  Hope  collection,  there  was  a  large  sapphire  which  ap- 
peared as  well  by  night  as  by  day,  a  very  rare  characteristic  in  this 
stone,  so  liable  to  turn  almost  black  by  artificial  light. 

The  sapphire  set  in  the  cross  surmounting  the  Crown  of  Eng- 
land is  the  only  stone  left  from  the  priceless  jewels  once  in  the 
Chapel  of  the  Pyx,  in  Westminster  Abbey,  held  safely  there  up  to 
1303,  during  all  the  wars  which  racked  England  to  the  fourteenth 
century,  yet  stolen  at  last  not  by  the  enemy,  but  by  the  Men  of  God 
themselves — the  Sub-Prior  of  Westminster  and  a  Sacristan,  who  fer- 
ried the  treasure,  never  to  be  seen  again,  across  the  Thames.  That 
the  sapphire  in  the  English  Crown  has  survived  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  at  the  time  of  the  robbery  it  was  in  Edward  the  Confessor's  own 
tomb,  set  in  a  ring  on  his  dead  hand.  It,  too,  went  through  various 
adventures,  but  finally  was  left  as  a  legacy  to  George  III.  by  the 
Cardinal  of  York,  and  is  the  sole  remaining  relic,  in  the  way  of  per- 
sonal adornment,  of  England's  earliest  monarchies. 

28 


DIAMOND. 


When  the  coal  in  the  grate  warms  us,  the  gem  on  our  hand  re- 
sponds to  its  glow.  One  is  the  gift  of  the  dim  past  to  our  necessities ; 
the  other  represents  the  height  of  modern  luxury.  Yet  both  are 
chemically  the  same. 

These  ancient  buried  forests  which  protect  us  from  the  cold 
are  largely  composed  of  carbon.  Every  breath  we  expel  is  full  of 
carbon.  It  is  an  elemental  substance  without  which  we  would  die. 
Yet  in  its  crystallized  form,  it  is  as  rare  as  the  diamond.  In  fact,  it 
is  the  diamond.  The  diamond  is  pure  carbon. 

All  great  things  are  simple :  air,  water,  fire ;  sunset  and  moon- 
rise  ;  the  night  and  the  dawn ;  our  five  senses ;  birth  and  death. 

Diamond  is  the  poem  of  the  inorganic  world :  still,  it  is  nothing 
but  carbon;  not  another  thing  enters  into  its  composition;  while 
tourmaline,  a  bushel  of  which  would  not  buy  the  Kohinoor,  is  in- 
finitely complex. 

Though  the  composition  of  the  diamond  is  absolutely  simple,  yet 
it  defies  explanation,  it  is  the  despair  of  science.  No  chemist  can 
make  one,  no  mineralogist  can  tell  how  it  is  made.  Here  even  the 
learned  must  resort  to  generalities.  Though  heat  and  pressure  and 
time  have  much  to  do  with  its  crystalline  form,  what  does  that  mean  ? 
What  is  the  magic  that  enables  a  dull  substance  once  in  a  thousand 
years  to  blossom  like  the  rose  ? 

The  stolid  Boer  boys  played  long  with  bright  pebbles  before  the 
genius  came  and  directed  capital  to  buy  the  farm.  Then  the  whole 
world  bought.  To  us,  here  at  home,  it  is  a  miracle.  Yet  as  the 
diamond  itself  is  the  simplest  of  things,  so  great  deeds  are  rooted  in 
single  instincts  of  the  heart.  The  youth  craves  adventure,  the  adult 
a  living,  the  financier  a  fortune,  the  slave  his  freedom,  the  explorer 
the  realization  of  his  dream,  and  all  combined  turn  the  world  inside 
out :  the  Pole  is  found,  earth's  treasures  are  disclosed  and  men  and 
women  grow  in  wealth,  elegance  and  power. 

A  man  longs  for  the  open,  starts  out  with  more  zeal  than  money, 
trudges  over  a  barren  land,  nearly  dies  of  fatigue,  hunger  and  thirst, 
falls  fainting  before  a  humble  cabin,  picks  up  a  souvenir,  and  the  re- 
sult is — the  De  Beers  Consolidated,  fortune  upon  fortune,  and  at  last 
the  scintillating  parterre  at  the  Opera ! 

The  pioneer  may  not  share  in  this.  Yet  he  has  had  his  compen- 
sation. He  has  broken  the  chains  of  custom.  He  has  made  fertile 
the  waste  places  of  the  earth.  To  the  explorer  comes  a  joy  but 
dimly  perceived  by  him  who  merely  profits  thereby.  He  must  be 
shaken  by  an  emotion  akin  to  Creation — the  remembrance  of  which 
will  follow  him  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

29 


But  for  these  invaders  of  the  desert,  these  conquerors  of  the 
peaks,  the  undaunted  soul  who  reached  the  Pole,  we  might  be 
wrangling  like  wild  beasts  to  obtain  a  foothold  on  the  earth.  One 
with  the  Universe,  a  part  of  the  divine  plan,  a  part  of  the  divine 
power,  they  lead  the  way. 

No  herald  is  needed  to  proclaim  the  dignity  and  power  of  the 
diamond.  Like  the  King,  its  rank  is  beyond  dispute.  Not  only  is  the 
diamond  the  hardest  of  precious  stones,  but  of  all  substances  known. 
This,  together  with  its  wonderful  prismatic  play,  reaching  its  highest 
expression  in  modern  cutting,  makes  it  one  of  the  most  coveted  ob- 
jects on  earth.  The  humblest  East  Side  Polish  Jew,  who  puts  his 
money  into  it  rather  than  the  savings  bank,  perhaps  pays  to  this 
monarch  the  highest  tribute  of  all. 

There  is  no  stone  more  wonderful,  more  alive.  What  endless 
charm  in  its  various  phases ;  its  grasp  of  all  colors ;  its  elusive,  emo- 
tional, agitated  beauty !  Its  fascinations  hold  in  thrall  rich  and  poor, 
old  and  young,  lady  and  laborer  alike.  A  plain,  practical  jeweler 
writes  thus  : 

Nothing  in  art  or  nature  excites  more  admiration  and  desire ; 
few  things  appeal  so  forcibly  to  the  common  human  love  of  the 
beautiful.  The  qualities  which  make  precious  stones  ^so  desirable  are 
beauty  and  durability  combined.  The  limpid  sparkling  dew-drop  is 
beautiful,  but  while  the  sun's  rays  beautify,  they  devour  it.  The 
beauty  of  the  diamond  is  the  same,  only  it  will  tremble  under  the 
ardent  glances  of  the  sun  and  flash  its  answers  back  for  a  thousand 
years. 

If  you  feel  the  mystery  of  the  rainbow,  you  are  drawn  by  the 
diamond.  If  you  thrill  with  the  wonder  of  the  fresh  young  morning, 
frost-work  or  shower,  you  love  the  diamond.  If  your  soul  melts 
with  the  eloquence  of  star  upon  star,  you  have  perceived  the  divinity 
that  lies  at  the  outermost  circle  of  the  universe  not  less  than  the  centre 
of  life. 

Of  late  years,  diamonds  if  bought  "right,"  as  the  saying  is,  have 
proved  conservative  investments,  the  value  going  up  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  and  so  far  showing  no  backward  tendency.  This  is  due  not 
only  to  their  almost  exclusive  control  by  a  shrewd  and  powerful 
syndicate,  but  also  to  the  fact  that,  with  no  new  mines  in  sight,  and 
the  old  yielding  a  lesser  quantity  each  year,  there  is  the  possibility  in 
the  near  future  of  a  real  scarcity,  at  least  in  those  of  the  first  quality. 

While  something  of  an  output  comes  from  Australia,  a  limited 
deposit  of  black,  colored  and  flawed  white  from  Borneo,  here  and 
there  one  is  picked  up  in  the  United  States,  there  are  only  three 
important  sources  of  supply — India,  Brazil  and  South  Africa.  Long 
was  India,  certainly  up  to  the  sixteenth  century,  the  diamond's  exclu- 
sive home.  The  famous  mines  of  Golconda,  near  Hyderabad,  though 
the  actual  deposits  were  some  distance  away,  Golconda  itself  being 
merely  the  trade  centre,  produced  stones  of  the  finest  quality.  In 
spite  of  unskillful  lapidaries,  always  cutting  for  weight  rather  than 
brilliance,  these  were  the  wonder  of  the  world.  Shafts  were  sunk 
sixty  or  seventy  feet,  then  the  work  was  done  entirely  by  hand;  dig- 
ging, baling  out  the  water,  extracting  the  gems  from  the  earth,  some- 

30 


times  thirty  thousand  laborers  being  employed.  Very  large  stones 
were  then  as  now  extremely  rare,  but  many  were  obtained  from  ten  to 
fifteen  karats  in  weight,  though  by  far  the  largest  number  were 
minute.  The  works  were  stopped  in  1532,  for  reasons  not  clear, 
some  say  because  the  Great  Mogul  demanded  from  the  King  of  Gol- 
conda  an  enormous  tribute,  but  the  best  authorities  believe  because 
the  mines  were  exhausted. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  two  hundred 
years  after  the  discovery  of  Brazil,  diamonds  began  to  come  thence 
to  Europe  almost  equal  in  quality  to  the  Indian,  but  whose  habitat  at 
first  was  doubted  and  value  decried  by  European  merchants  fearful 
of  an  oversupply.  This  induced  the  clever  Portuguese  to  send  them 
to  India,  whence  they  were  reshipped  by  confederates  at  Goa  as  true 
Indian  stones.  The  Brazilian  mines  of  Minas  Geraes  were  opened 
in  1727,  and  from  then  till  1850  were  computed  to  have  yielded  to 
the  world  at  least  thirty  million  karats,  of  which,  however,  only  one- 
third  were  fit  for  gems. 

A  few  years  later  the  most  extraordinary  deposits,  so  far  as 
quantity  goes,  in  all  history  were  discovered — those  of  South  Africa. 
When  these  began  to  be  mined  scientifically,  the  output  was  so  tre- 
mendous that  Brazil  could  not  stand  the  competition,  and  her  dig- 
gings practically  ceased,  while  the  price  of  diamonds  greatly  declined. 
Then  a  syndicate  was  formed,  called  the  De  Beers  Consolidated,  the 
mines  were  placed  under  one  management,  the  output  was  restricted 
and  the  price  regulated.  Diamonds  are  not  as  thick  as  pebbles  and 
the  end  is  bound  to  come.  Perhaps,  when  the  earth's  possibilities  are 
definitely  determined,  the  diamond  will  once  more  be  the  property  of 
kings  only,  or  their  substitute  in  the  world's  economy — the  American 
multi-millionaires. 

Since  1875  the  South  African  mines  have  been  the  main  source 
of  supply.  They  now  furnish  95  per  cent,  of  the  world's  output.  As 
a  rule,  these  are  tinged  with  yellow,  but  at  Jagersfontein,  large  pure 
white  stones,  some  bordering  on  the  desired  bluish  cast,  are  not 
uncommon.  These  are  called  Jagers  (Yahgers)  in  trade,  and  their 
whiteness  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  complete  absence  of  iron 
pyrites.  Yet  though  white,  they  are  subject  to  defects.  Few  are 
perfect. 

The  gem,  or  "gem  color,"  is  that  which  expresses  the  beauty  of 
the  specimen  at  its  highest  development.  As  the  normal  diamond  is 
without  color,  the  "gem"  diamond  technically  is  the  one  of  the  purest 
white,  the  clearest  transparence,  and  the  greatest  brilliance.  It  is 
highly  desirable  to  own  such  a  gem ;  the  first  rank  in  this  stone  means 
more  than  in  others;  it  is  economy  to  invest  in  the  best.  One  of 
defective  properties  may  possess  a  charm  endearing  it  to  you  person- 
ally, but  the  dealer  has  a  profound  respect  for  what  he  calls  "good 
stuff,"  white,  clean,  perfect,  and  he  will  seldom  let  it  pass. 

With  colored  stones,  it  is  not  quite  the  same,  perfection  of  tint 
being  the  first  requisite.  A  ruby  of  the  true  pigeon's  blood,  though 
flawed,  is  to  be  preferred  to  a  stone  of  doubtful  hue,  no  matter  how 
clean.  This  deep,  vibrant,  glorious  red  magnetizes  the  minute  it 

31 


appears.  As  Cattelle  says :  "Gem  color  is  at  once  recognized  by  those 
who  have  seen  it  before,  and  usually  the  uninformed  will  prefer  it 
above  all  others,  simply  on  its  merits.  The  true  shade  in  all  gems  is 
that  degree  of  natural  color  most  pleasing  to  the  eye.  It  should 
affect  the  sense  of  sight  as  silk  velvet  feels  to  the  touch — rich  and  soft. 
No  gem  color  is  harsh  or  thin  or  watery." 

As  color  enters  a  diamond,  beyond  a  slight  tinge,  it  becomes 
more  rare  but  less  brilliant.  The  refractive  and  dispersive  powers, 
exceptionally  strong  in  this  stone,  seem  impeded  by  any  noticeable 
admixture  of  pigment.  The  brown  diamond,  usually  seal  or  bronze, 
has  little  prism  play,  while  black  has  none  at  all.  Yet  with  its  lesser 
brilliance,  the  brown  even  in  its  deepest  tints  is  not  without  richness, 
and  always  exhibits  a  restlessness,  an  energy,  possessed  by  no  other 
brown  stone. 

Diamonds  strongly  tinged  with  color  are  termed  "fancy"  stones, 
and  command  their  price.  Once  in  a  blue  moon  there  is  one  with 
color  so  pronounced  as  closely  to  resemble  the  gem  it  mimics.  The 
Hope  Diamond  is  like  a  fine  blue  sapphire.  A  ruby  red  diamond  of 
ten  karats  is  said  to  be  among  the  Russian  Crown  jewels,  and  a  rose 
red  of  three  times  that  size  among  the  Austrian,  but  no  one  seems 
actually  to  have  seen  these  two  red  diamonds.  The  Halphen  Red, 
described  under  the  head  of  Famous  Jewels,  is  authentic,  as  is  the 
celebrated  Dresden  Green,  in  the  Green  Vaults  at  Dresden.  Tiffany 
has  one  of  a  yellow  so  intense  as  to  mock  the  topaz. 

But  these  are  the  wonders  of  the  world.  Generally  the  coloring 
of  fancy  diamonds  is  very  pale,  seldom  more  than  a  slight  tinge  of 
blue,  pink,  green,  violet  or  yellow;  but  whatever  the  tint,  whether 
suggesting  the  sapphire,  ruby,  emerald,  amethyst  or  topaz,  it  is  by 
reason  of  its  prismatic  play  more  beautiful  than  any  stone  it  recalls. 
To  the  King  they  all  bend  the  knee ! 

Diamonds  combining  absence  of  color  with  perfect  transpar- 
ence have  a  peculiar  steel  blue  appearance.  These  are  the  blue- white 
— the  finest  known  to  the  trade.  They  head  the  commercial  list, 
though  the  pure  white  are  more  actively  in  demand,  the  blue-white 
being  less  effective  in  the  evening  than  by  daylight.  Some  of  these 
stones,  rather  dull  by  gas-light,  the  arc  light  converts  into  a  deep 
violet,  almost  uncanny  in  its  loveliness.  If  brought  directly  into  a 
dark  room,  after  exposure  to  the  sun,  these  often  exhibit  phosphor- 
escence. This  is  a  characteristic  of  some  of  the  Old  Mine  stones,  a 
term  nowadays  applied  not  only  to  the  actual  output  of  the  Old 
Mine  in  Brazil,  but  to  all  diamonds  of  the  mediaeval  square  cut. 

The  blue-white  gem  was  not  of  great  rarity  among  Indian  or 
Brazilian  stones,  but  is  far  less  frequent  in  South  Africa.  Diamonds 
from  the  Cape  differ  again  from  the  Indian  and  Brazilian  in  exhibit- 
ing a  finer  play  of  colors  by  artificial  than  natural  light.  Gaslight  is 
always  the  friend  of  yellowish  stones,  taking  the  despised  tint  out  of 
them,  and  increasing  their  lustre,  but  as  a  rule  only  deadening  the 
blue. 

Many  diamonds  change  color  with  heat,  but  the  South  African,  if 
yellow,  remain  so  at  the  highest  temperatures.  Can  this  be  because, 

32 


with  the  blue  earth  in  which  they  are  formed,  they  are  the  result 
of  volcanic  action?  The  Indian  and  Brazilian  are  found  mostly  as 
rolled  pebbles,  brought  far  from  the  mother  rock  by  the  force  of  tor- 
rents and  rushing  water. 

Dr.  Kunz  reckons  that,  according  to  the  high  American  standard, 
only  eight  per  cent,  of  the  Cape  output  is  first  quality;  twenty-five 
per  cent,  second ;  twenty  per  cent,  third ;  and  the  balance  "bort,"  an 
imperfectly  crystallized  form,  used  for  mechanical  purposes.  Car- 
bonado, found  largely  in  Brazil,  is  a  brownish-black  variety,  very  in- 
distinctly crystallized  and  without  brilliance. 

The  American  commercial  scale  is  white,  pearl  white,  steel  white, 
commercial  white,  Cape  white,  the  last  four  increasing  shades  of  "off" 
color,  then  deepening  tones  of  yellow ;  but  a  "canary,"  at  its  best  pre- 
cisely the  tint  of  the  bird,  is  a  fancy  stone,  and  as  such  is  more  valu- 
able than  a  pure  white. 

After  the  yellows  come  "London  Smoke,"  and  the  various  shades 
of  brown,  first  barely  tinged,  then  gradually  down  through  increas- 
ing coffee  tints  to  mud.  There  is  a  well-defined  value  for  each  of 
these  gradations,  and  also  for  brilliance  through  the  various  defects 
to  the  thickest  impurity.  A  karat  stone,  white,  flawless,  but  without 
a  hint  of  blue,  at  the  present  time  costs  the  public  quite  a  bit  over 
$200.  As  the  karats  increase,  the  price  mounts  much  faster  than  the 
karats. 

But  flawlessness,  while  to  be  desired,  does  not  necessarily  con- 
tain all  the  virtues.  Less  perfect  stones,  though  defective,  may  pos- 
sess a  greater  value  and  charm.  Cattelle  says:  "It  is  necessary, 
above  all  things,  that  a  stone,  of  whatever  kind,  have  some  positive 
merit.  There  are  stones,  like  men,  whose  qualities  are  all  negative ; 
they  have  no  striking  faults  even ;  they  do  not  impress  one.  Avoid 
them.  Others  are  faulty,  but  somehow  one  likes  them.  They  have 
character.  A  crystallized  dew-drop  that  holds  the  play  of  the  sun 
will  have  more  lovers,  though  there  is  a  black  spot  in  the  heart  of  it, 
than  a  dead  stone  which  barely  winks  at  high  noon,  even  if  'perfect/  J: 

Very  large  stones,  though  scarce  and  expensive,  are  stupendous 
rather  than  beautiful,  valuable  only  as  curiosities.  The  fire  does  not 
increase  after  a  dozen  karats  in  proportion  to  the  size.  Great 
diamonds  often  impress  the  beholder  scarcely  more  than  so  much 
glass. 

The  black  diamonds  of  Borneo,  the  hardest  of  all,  must  be  pol- 
ished by  their  own  powder.  They  are  more  strange  than  beautiful, 
being  practically  opaque,  light  only  along  the  edges.  Yet  their  very- 
opacity  gives  them  a  certain  interest,  and  they  make  ideal  mourning 
jewelry.  Australia,  the  home  of  the  black  opal,  recently  given  to  the 
market,  produces  as  yet  no  black  diamonds,  though  the  small  white 
ones  found,  the  largest  not  exceeding  five  karats,  are  next  in  hardness, 
to  Borneo's,  and  cut  very  brilliant.  Black  diamonds  occur  near  Bahia 
in  Brazil,  but  the  main  output  there  is  carbonado — of  great  use  where- 
an  irresistible  substance  is  required,  but  not  appropriate  for  jewelry. 

In  Brazil,  particularly  at  Diamontina,  Minas  Geraes,  there  are 
stones  of  a  greenish  cast  which  sometimes  proves  superficial  and  a 

33 


white  diamond  results  from  further  cutting.  Since  the  rise  in  price, 
there  is  renewed  interest  in  Brazilian  mines,  American  capital  being 
more  and  more  invested;  but  as  the  country  is  wild,  reached  only, 
much  of  it,  by  mule  back,  the  progress  is  slow.  It  is  said,  too,  that 
so  far  the  diamonds  run  small  and  defective. 

Diamonds,  as  well  as  colored  gems,  cost  more  in  older  civiliza- 
tions than  ours.  But  in  1824,  when  Don  Pedro  paid  to  England  the 
Brazilian  debt  in  diamonds,  there  was  a  glut  in  the  market  and  the 
price  fell.  In  1836  it  rose  again.  During  the  revolution  of  1848 
it  fell.  From  that  year  till  1865  it  increased  about  five  per  cent, 
yearly.  Then,  at  the  end  of  the  American  Civil  War,  it  sprang  up 
twenty-five  per  cent.  At  the  end  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1871 
it  rose  ten  per  cent,  next  two  years  twenty  per  cent.  After  the  Amer- 
ican panic  of  1873,  and  discovery  of  South  African  mines,  the  market 
price  fell  steadily  to  that  of  1862.  The  South  African  abundance 
affected  the  yellowish  stones  far  more  than  the  pure  white.  Yet  even 
they  have  almost  doubled  in  value  since  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth century. 

The  diamond,  being  the  hardest  of  all  gems,  is  marked  10  in 
Moh's  scale,  an  arbitrary  method  of  comparing  stones,  invented  by  a 
German.  The  outer  skin  of  the  gem  is  harder  than  the  interior.  But 
though  hard  and  fairly  heavy,  its  lustre  adamantine  and  specific 
gravity  3.5,  it  is  by  no  means  infrangible.  The  old  superstition  that 
the  diamond  if  placed  between  hammer  and  anvil  would  go  through 
the  ordeal  unharmed  probably  has  caused  the  destruction  of  many  a 
fine  stone.  Such  credulity  received  a  rude  shock  when  modern 
mineralogists  discovered  that  though  hard  it  is  brittle,  owing  to 
its  perfect  cleavage.  It  is  well,  then,  not  to  drop  an  unset  diamond 
from  any  height. 

Dispersion,  the  power  of  breaking  up  white  light,  is  great. 
The  spectrum  produced  by  a  prism  of  diamond  is  very  long ;  the  red 
rays  are  widely  separated  from  the  blue.  Thus  the  various  colors  a 
white  diamond  breaks  up  are  each  so  far  apart  as  to  be  distinctly  per- 
ceptible. Hence  that  remarkable  prismatic  play  on  which  the  beauty 
of  the  gem  depends.  This  is  highest  in  the  Indian,  next  in  the  Brazil- 
ian, lowest  in  the  South  African.  Yet  the  finest  of  the  last  approach, 
perhaps  equal,  the  beautiful  blue-white  of  the  others ;  and  those 
without  a  tinge  of  blue,  if  flawless,  often  have  a  magnificent  play,  par- 
ticularly when  massed  together.  An  ornament  of  this  sort,  where  the 
tints  leap  from  stone  to  stone,  is  a  river  of  light  and  gorgeous  fire. 

Brown  diamonds,  more  common  than  others,  are  nevertheless, 
because  of  the  increasing  cost  of  white,  the  prejudice  against  yellow, 
and  a  certain  subdued  charm  of  their  own,  becoming  quite  popular. 
Often,  like  the  black,  they  are  transparent  only  at  the  edges,  and  also 
like  them,  are  frequently  opaque.  Generally,  even  in  the  lightest 
shades  and  most  transparent  specimens,  they  are  less  brilliant  in  play 
of  color  than  yellowish  stones,  and  appear  to  best  advantage  in  the 
daytime.  All  colored  specimens  show  up  better  by  daylight.  The 
brown  are  particularly  appropriate  as  an  accompaniment  to  hyacinths, 

34 


zircons,  topazes,  any  stone  containing  brown,  red  or  yellow,  and  also 
as  a  ring-stone,  set  deep  in  gold,  for  men. 

As  said  before,  the  diamond,  though  the  hardest  of  all  substances, 
is  brittle.  This  is  because  of  its  almost  perfect  cleavage,  which  makes 
it  respond  readily  to  a  well-directed  blow,  and  sometimes  become  in- 
jured in  a  fall.  While  a  skillful  cutter  with  modern  tools  is  almost 
sure  of  the  result,  at  the  same  time  such  an  important  moment  must 
be  a  trial  to  the  nerves.  Yet  so  accurate  has  the  work  and  the  mathe- 
matics concerning  it  become,  that  the  lapidary  can  foretell  to  a  cer- 
tainty the  exact  shape,  size  and  appearance  a  rough  diamond  after 
cutting  will  assume. 

When  the  polishing  is  to  take  place,  the  diamond  is  placed  in  a 
special  box,  or  "dop,"  about  two  inches  long,  filled  with  a  fused 
lead  compound  in  which  the  gem  is  imbedded.  This  weighs  about 
half  a  pound,  and  holds  the  stone  firmly  in  position.  Then  the  polish- 
ing wheel,  generally  with  a  diameter  of  about  ten  inches,  makes 
some  2,400  revolutions  a  minute,  and  the  work  is  begun.  Often  it 
must  be  interrupted  to  allow  the  disk  to  cool,  when  overheated  by 
friction.  Each  time  a  new  facet  is  cut,  the  diamond  must  be  re- 
moved from  the  dop  and  reset  at  a  new  angle.  The  diamond-cutter 
trusts  to  his  eye  alone  to  guide  him  in  this  delicate  adjustment,  except 
in  the  case  of  very  small  diamonds,  when  a  lens  is  necessary.  The 
skill  shown  in  placing  the  stone  in  the  heated  metal,  sometimes  with 
the  bare  hand,  is  said  to  be  remarkable. 

The  "brilliant,"  for  which  cut  every  one  nowadays  yearns,  re- 
sembles two  cones  united  at  their  bases,  the  upper  truncated  a  short 
distance  from  the  base,  the  lower  having  the  apex  removed.  The 
flat  top  is  called  the  "table";  the  rim,  where  the  cones  unite,  the 
"girdle" ;  the  small  flat  bottom,  the  "culet" ;  the  entire  lower  portion 
from  the  girdle  to  the  culet  the  "pavilion" ;  and  the  space  between  the 
girdle  and  the  table  the  "bizel"  or  crown.  Formerly,  one-third  of  the 
depth  of  the  stone  was  placed  above  the  girdle.  It  is  less  now,  and 
the  change  is  for  the  better,  giving  to  a  stone  of  less  weight  a  sharper 
brilliance. 

As  a  rule,  there  are  thirty-two  facets  above  the  girdle  and  twen- 
ty-four below ;  in  all  fifty-six,  not  counting  the  table  and  the  culet. 
To  these  are  often  added  eight  extra  facets,  both  above  and  below, 
each  recut  into  three  or  four  smaller  ones. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  tell  if  a  stone  is  cut  to  the  best  proportion.  If 
when  held  both  near  and  far,  it  seems  full  of  light  and  life,  it  has  ful- 
filled its  destiny.  Too  deep  a  stone,  or  one  cut  irregularly,  perhaps  to 
avoid  a  flaw,  sometimes  with  the  culet  slightly  to  one  side,  will  often 
have  a  dark  spot  or  "well"  in  the  centre.  While  if  cut  too  shallow, 
there  will  be  a  glassy  appearance,  like  the  eye  of  a  fish,  which  is 
wholly  undesirable.  This  latter  quality  is  apt  to  be  a  drawback  to 
the  present  very  general  tendency  to  cut  stones  "spread." 

The  "twentieth-century  cut,"  introduced  a  few  years  ago,  but 
falling  short  of  popular  approval,  is  simply  the  old  double  rose  with  a 
modern  twist.  It  is  well  enough  for  a  shallow  stone,  but  fails  to  bring 
out  the  possibilities  of  the  best  specimens ;  seeming  to  be  all  surface, 

35 


lacking  in  reserve  power.  One  of  the  chief  pleasures  of  the  diamond 
owner  is  to  look  into  its  beautiful,  mysterious  depths,  from  which 
flash  all  the  colors  that  ever  were.  This  can  never  happen  with  the 
twentieth  century  cut,  or  "fish-eyes."  The  rose-cut  is  usually  confined 
to  either  very  small  or  very  large  stones.  Thin  diamonds  and  chips 
must  be  rose-cut.  And  it  was  also  considered  best  for  the  big  Flor- 
entine. 

The  briolette  is  an  oval  or  pear-shaped  stone,  cut  in  every  part 
with  triangular  facets ;  the  pendeloque  is  the  same,  cut  brilliant ;  the 
rondelle  is  a  flat,  circular  stone  with  faceted  edges. 

Step-cut  is  that  in  which  you  often  see  the  emerald,  and  many 
colored  stones  from  the  Orient.  It  usually  has  three  rows  of  straight 
facets  parallel  to  the  face  of  the  stone,  decreasing  in  length  as  they 
approach  the  table;  sometimes  six-sided,  sometimes  eight.  The 
lower  part  is  covered  with  similar  facets  to  the  culet.  Lately  the 
upper  portion  has  sometimes  been  cut  brilliant,  but  not  all  approve  of 
this,  though  it  increases  the  lustre. 

Cabochon-cut  is  flat  with  a  polished  convex  top,  as  with  opals, 
turquoises,  moonstones  and  the  dark  garnet,  or  carbuncle.  Other 
gems  may  be  cut  this  way,  sometimes  to  great  advantage,  as  it  hides 
defects  and  softens  the  color.  It  is  particularly  appropriate  to  decor- 
ative gold  work,  harmonizing  and  uniting  with  the  metal  as  no  bril- 
liant ever  can,  adding  immensely  to  its  richness  and  artistic  effect. 

The  first  diamonds  found  in  India  were  valued  most  when  they 
were  changed  least.  A  well-shaped  natural  crystal,  slightly  polished, 
sometimes  with  a  facet  here  and  there  to  catch  the  light,  was  to  them 
the  height  of  beauty.  Even  when  facets  became  more  common, 
though  as  a  rule  only  around  the  edge  of  the  stone,  leaving  the  centre 
free,  Tavernier  said  he  could  tell  when  a  diamond  was  defective 
simply  by  the  number  of  its  facets.  In  those  old  times  they  were  used 
that  blemishes  might  be  concealed  rather  than  beauties  revealed. 

Two  things  the  old  cutters  understood  perfectly — to  cut  for 
weight,  and  to  bring  out  the  best  tint  of  a  colored  stone.  By  placing 
the  facets  in  exact  relation  to  an  ideal  spot  of  color  they  could  throw 
it  around  the  whole  stone,  which  then  faced  the  spectator  as  a  perfect 
specimen  instead  of  one  cleverly  manipulated. 

This  sort  of  thing  obtains  at  the  present  time,  and  Indian  stones 
should  never  be  recut  without  recourse  to  the  highest  authorities — 
they  may  easily  turn  out  to  be  anything  save  examples  of  the  coveted 
gem  colors.  It  is  difficult  to  eradicate  from  the  Indian  blood  the 
reverence  for  mere  weight ;  they  care  for  it  more  than  for  anything 
else ;  it  hurts  an  Oriental  to  sacrifice  karats  to  brilliance  as  much  as 
an  old  gentlewoman  to  offer  up  her  lace  heirlooms  to  the  scissors  of 
the  irreverent  up-to-date  modiste. 

It  was  in  Europe,  not  India,  that  gem  cutting  received  its  first 
real  encouragement.  After  a  few  tentative  efforts,  Louis  de  Bequem 
attempted  in  1475  what  was  then  considered  the  "perfect"  cut,  on 
three  large  diamonds  owned  by  Charles  the  Bold,  one  of  them  the 
Sancy. 

36 


Bequem's  pupils  were  encouraged  greatly  by  Cardinal  Mazarin, 
who  ordered  twelve  of  the  largest  diamonds  in  the  French  crown  re- 
cut  after  the  new  fashion,  about  1520. 

Diamond  cutting  naturally  was  taken  to  by  the  Jews,  whom 
religious  persecution  half  a  century  later  drove  from  various  places 
to  Amsterdam,  where  they  flourish  to  this  day.  Amsterdam  and 
Antwerp,  the  latter  harboring  all  the  French  refugees  during  the 
political  troubles  of  the  eighteenth  century,  are  now  the  diamond  cut- 
ting centres.  But  the  industry  is  making  amazing  strides  in  the 
United  States. 

It  was  here,  indeed,  that  the  brilliant  cut  reached  its  highest 
perfection,  first  at  the  hands  of  Henry  D.  Morse,  of  Boston,  who 
conjured  with  some  of  the  cheaper  stones,  making  them  rival  in 
beauty  others  infinitely  more  costly ;  then  by  Mr.  Passmore,  also  of 
Boston,  who  is  doing  for  colored  stones  what  his  predecessor  did  for 
the  diamond. 

So  extraordinary  has  been  the  progress  in  the  transformation  of 
ordinary  transparent  stones,  such  as  garnets,  peridots,  zircons,  to 
objects  of  great  splendor,  that  it  seems  as  though  mechanical  skill 
could  go  no  farther. 

All  efforts  to  improve  on  a  cut  which,  in  its  way,  seems  perfect 
have  so  far  come  to  naught.  The  trouble  is  rather  that  everything  is 
being  thrown  into  the  scale  on  the  side  of  mere  brilliance.  Sometimes 
the  glare  wearies  the  eye.  The  beryl,  for  instance,  has  a  softer,  more 
eloquent  tint  when  simply  cut  en  cabochon.  Defective  rubies, 
allowed  to  assume  this  form,  and  set  low  in  richly  carved  gold,  often 
carry  off  the  palm  from  their  more  perfect  sisters  poised  in  a  high 
clawed  setting  and  brilliant  in  a  way  that  does  not  belong  to  this  gem, 
unless  endowed  with  rare  natural  fire. 

The  astonishing  fact  about  a  diamond  is  that  its  beauty  is  largely 
due  to  the  bending  of  a  line  of  light,  not  to  its  appearance  as  the  Lord 
made  it — scarcely  more  impressive,  as  King  Edward  remarked  of  the 
great  Cullinan,  when  shown  to  him  in  the  rough,  than  a  glassy  pebble 
kicked  aside  in  the  road. 

From  a  curiosity  this  is  converted  into  a  thing  of  beauty  by  the 
skill  of  the  cutter  to  catch  the  light  and,  by  means  of  many  facets,  at 
exactly  the  right  angle,  every  step  calculated  to  a  nicety,  to  send 
it  back  and  forth,  like  battledore  and  shuttlecock,  till  wearied  with 
the  struggle  it  is  allowed  to  rest  at  last  in  its  lover's  eye. 

Mr.  Morse's  scientific  study,  aided  by  his  artistic  perception, 
enabled  him  to  attain  a  perfection  which  not  only  brought  the  United 
States  into  a  prominent  position  among  diamond  experts,  but  revolu- 
tionized the  methods  of  the  whole  world.  For  he  did  away  with 
much  of  the  old  hand  labor,  replacing  it  with  a  machine  wonderful  in 
its  accuracy  and  speed.  "Mr.  Morse  above  all  others,"  says  one, 
"has  shown  that  diamond  cutting  is  an  art,  not  an  industry" 

There  is  a  lot  of  affectation  in  the  talk  about  the  vulgarity  of  dia- 
monds. It  is  mostly  from  the  lips  of  impecunious  artistic  tempera- 
ments, who  could  not  own  them  if  they  would.  Such  a  gem  is  not  to 
be  worn  to  market,  but  it  is  the  height  of  beauty  in  its  place.  On  a 

37 


negative  little  woman  it  is  not  in  its  place,  nor  on  a  big  fat  man.  To 
a  brunette  it  is  exceedingly  becoming,  particularly  if  the  sparkle  in 
her  eyes  matches  that  of  the  gem.  Even  if  a  dull  countenance  be 
extinguished  by  flashing  diamonds  on  neck  or  ears  or  hair,  there  may 
be  a  beautiful  hand.  Diamonds  will  lend  charm  to  its  color,  call 
attention  to  its  character,  and  there  is  no  location  which  gives  greater 
pleasure  to  the  wearer. 

It  seems  a  fact  that  the  diamond  responds  to  a  deep  human  in- 
stinct for  life  and  light,  despite  the  flings  at  it  from  those  who  wish 
to  appear  the  possessors  of  superior  taste.  A  Swedish  maid,  who 
had  lived  with  me  ten  years,  and  been  a  tower  of  strength  in  time  of 
trouble,  received  in  course  of  her  stay,  several  rings — a  topaz,  her 
birthstone;  an  amethyst,  her  guardian  angel  talisman;  a  carbuncle 
surrounded  by  pearls,  an  opal,  a  ruby  doublet,  and  a  diamond,  the 
last  a  pure  white  dazzling  gem  of  extraordinary  fire,  weighing  a 
karat,  and  costing  over  $200.  With  these  she  went  back  to  the  old 
home  in  Sweden,  where  her  relatives  raved  over  the  colored  stones, 
particularly  the  topaz,  the  ruby  doublet  and  the  opal,  but  would  have 
none  of  the  diamond.  They  saw  no  beauty  in  it,  and  declined  to  be- 
lieve it  was  valuable,  though  several  New  York  jewelers  had  ex- 
claimed at  its  exceptional  quality  and  charm.  And  surely  these  good 
people,  in  the  heart  of  a  Scandinavian  rural  district,  represent  crude 
rather  than  cultivated  taste. 

Diamond  is  the  birthstone  for  April  and  the  talismanic  gem  of 
the  guardian  angel  for  August.  It  expresses  purity  and  innocence. 

Marbodus  says : 

In  magic  rites  employed,  a  potent  charm, 

With  force  invincible  it  nerves  the  arm: 

Its  power  will  chase  far  from  the  sleeping  head 

The  dream  illusive  and  the  goblin  dread : 

Baffle    the    venom'd    draught,    fierce    quarrels    heal, 

Madness  appease  and  stay  the  foeman's  steel. 

As  a  protection  from  poison,  the  diamond  was  much  used  in  the 
remote  past,  and  also  for  the  detection  of  infidelity.  Placed  under 
the  head  of  one  sleeping,  it  compelled  the  disclosure  of  violations 
against  the  "first  law  of  love." 


RUBY. 


Known  under  different  names  since  the  beginning  of  gem  his- 
tory,  the  ruby  was  not  fully  distinguished  from  other  red  stones, 
cept  by  the  learned  few,  until  comparatively  recent  times.  Not  many 
even  now  understand  that  the  ruby  and  the  sapphire  are  identical 
that  the  only  difference  is  one  of  color.  Both  are  the  gem  forms  of 
corundum,  the  crystallization  of  a  widespread  and  common  thing  in 
nature,  the  earth  alumina,  and  the  hardest  substance  known  next  to 
diamond.  Emery  is  corundum  in  an  amorphous  state,  the  ancient 
"stone  of  Naxos,"  used  for  polishing.  It  is  9  in  hardness,  about  4  in 
specific  gravity,  and  its  lustre  is  vitreous. 

Nowadays  the  dull,  opaque,  coarse  crystals,  unfit  for  gems,  are 
referred  to  as  corundum;  the  blue,  green,  yellow,  pink,  white,  as 
sapphire,  the  red  as  ruby.  Where  the  line  is  drawn  that  converts 
the  light  ruby  into  the  pink  sapphire  it  is  difficult  to  describe ;  yet  one 
much  less  than  an  expert  generally  can  tell.  There  is  a  salmon  tinge 
to  the  pink  sapphire  never  found  in  the  ruby,  whose  red  inclines  to 
violet.  While  rubies  degenerate  in  color  till  they  are  exiled  to  the 
sapphire's  realm,  there  is  no  doubt  when  the  sad  circumstance  takes 
place.  The  ruby  is  much  more  like  the  spinel,  the  garnet,  the  tourma- 
line, than  its  own  faded  pink  sister.  Sometimes  it  is  exceedingly 
difficult,  by  the  color  alone,  to  distinguish  a  fine  tourmaline  from  a 
ruby. 

Yet  there  is  a  depth  and  at  night  a  vivid  brilliance  which  ex- 
plains why  the  ruby  is  the  peer  of  all  colored  stones.  Particularly  is 
this  the  case  with  that  called  the  "pigeon's  blood,"  said  to  be  the 
exact  shade  of  the  blood  of  a  pigeon  dropped  on  white  paper.  A  very 
small  pigeon's  blood  placed  beside  other  red  stones,  no  matter  how 
large,  casts  them  all  into  the  shade.  There  is  a  spirit,  a  vitality,  to  a 
fine  ruby  which  invariably  makes  itself  felt. 

But  this  applies  only  to  stones  of  the  finest  color  and  lustre. 
Several  softer  stones  are  more  attractive  than  the  ruby  in  its  "off" 
moments.  Its  basic  red  is  so  tinged  with  violet  as  to  approach  a  deep, 
glowing  pink.  Now  pink  is  beautiful  when  it  is  beautiful,  but  too 
much  involved  with  purple  it  may  easily  suggest  the  most  hideous 
of  all  colors,  magenta.  Somebody  once  said  that  a  woman  who 
would  wear  magenta  would  steal.  Yet  in  Burmah,  home  of  the  finest 
rubies,  the  common  people  all  wear  that  vile  pink,  trying  to  carry  out 
in  clothes  the  color  of  their  famous  gem.  It  is  well-known  that  a 
given  pigment  will  act  quite  differently  on  different  materials.  The 
tint  of  a  jewel  may  be  exquisite,  when  its  reproduction  in  cotton 
would  be  execrable.  So  in  Burmah,  the  native  patriotism,  laudable 
enough  in  itself,  gets  on  the  stranger's  nerves.  Queer  how  Nature 

39 


takes  a  hand  here,  too,  in  the  bougainvillea,  or  Burmah  blossom,  as 
the  natives  call  it  in  India,  a  study  in  magenta,  one  of  Nature's  few 
mistakes. 

In  Siam  the  ruby  is  also  found,  but  darker,  more  like  the  pyrope 
garnet,  and  less  lustrous.  Those  picked  up  in  Ceylon  are  very  pale. 
In  any  country,  stones  both  large  and  clear  are  extremely  rare, 
though  specimens  suitable  for  watch  jewels  are  common  enough. 
It  is  hoped  that  as  the  sapphire  deposits  of  Montana  become  more 
thoroughly  opened  up,  important  ruby  crystals  will  also  disclose 
themselves,  but  so  far  the  name  "Montana  rubies"  usually  covers 
certain  garnets  found  there.  The  "Cape  rubies"  of  South  Africa 
turned  out  to  be  only  a  fine  variety  of  garnet,  as  did  the  "Adelaide 
rubies"  of  Australia.  The  syndicate  formed  to  work  this  supposedly 
rich  find  went  to  pieces  when  exact  science  placed  the  specimens 
where  they  belonged. 

The  pigeon's  blood  ruby  is  very  near  the  color  of  a  deep  rose- 
pink  carnation ;  possibly  they  are  as  much  alike  as  flower  and  mineral 
can  be.  But  the  almost  living  light  in  the  ruby,  when  cut  brilliant, 
makes  suggestion  idle.  The  comparison  to  the  very  centre  of  the 
red  ray  in  the  solar  spectrum  seems  more  true. 

The  rubies  found  in  Montana  with  sapphire,  pale  red,  like  these 
of  Ceylon,  are  very  small.  But  at  Cowie  Creek,  in  Macon  County, 
five  miles  from  Franklin,  North  Carolina,  in  certain  garnet-bearing 
rocks,  a  few  have  been  extracted  of  as  fine  a  color  as  the  pigeon's 
blood  of  Burmah.  Some  enclose  crystals  of  the  newly  discovered 
variety  of  garnet  called  rhodolite,  but  this  seems  not  to  impair  their 
transparency  or  value.  Perhaps  it  improves  their  color,  as  the  rose 
tint  of  the  rhodolite  is  beautiful.  Though  similar  to  Burmese  stones 
in  appearance,  their  mode  of  occurrence  is  quite  different.  The  white 
crystalline  limestone  of  Burmah  is  absent,  also  the  fine  red  spinels  as 
associates. 

The  mixed  coloring  of  ruby  often  becomes  uniform  by  heat. 
Heating,  if  gradual,  does  not  injure  the  stone.  The  coloring  matter, 
therefore,  is  not  organic.  It  is  due  to  chromium.  A  clear,  transpar- 
ent, flawless  ruby  of  any  size  is  the  rarest  of  all  stones.  During  the 
Renaissance,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  karat  ruby  commanded 
$2,000 ;  emerald,  $1,000 ;  diamond  only  $250  and  sapphire  $25.  This 
was  the  valuation  of  Benvenuto  Cellini. 

In  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  ruby,  emerald  and  sap- 
phire could  be  bought  for  the  same  sum,  and  that  very  small — about 
$15  per  karat.  Now,  the  price  is  up  again,  but  far  below  the  palmy 
days  of  the  Renaissance,  when  gems  were  rare.  Yet  a  "twin"  dia- 
mond and  ruby  ring  at  Tiffany's,  each  stone  weighing  perhaps  three 
karats,  cost  in  1909  $22,000,  and  of  this  $21,000  represented  the  ruby ! 

The  localities  of  ruby,  as  seen,  are  not  many.  Strange  that  Cey- 
lon, so  rich  in  sapphire  is  so  poor  in  ruby.  India  also,  though  co- 
rundum is  abundant,  discloses  very  few  of  gem  variety.  Ruby  Bar 
in  Montana  is  the  hope  of  Americans,  but  so  far  it  is  pretty  much  all 
hope.  The  earth  seems  to  give  up  the  ruby  with  difficulty. 

40 


Consequently  it  is  of  great  interest  to  watch  the  progress  in  arti- 
ficial rubies.  As  now  given  to  the  world,  the  manufactured,  or  "re- 
constructed" are  worthy  of  respect ;  for  they  are  rubies,  by  ingenuity 
of  man  if  not  by  act  of  God. 

Ruby  in  cold  countries  is  practically  absent.  It  is  the  child  of 
warm  lands — Siam,  India,  Burmah.  The  fire  of  the  tropics  burns  in 
its  heart — like  a  sacred  flame  that  knows  no  end. 

It  is  the  birthstone  of  most  mediaeval  nations  for  December,  the 
Poles  and  Russians  alone  using  the  turquoise.  The  latter,  however, 
was  the  more  approved  from  the  eighteenth  century  to  the  twentieth. 
The  past  few  years  has  witnessed  a  reversion  to  the  ruby.  Its  signifi- 
cance to-day  is  charity,  dignity  and  divine  power. 

Marbodus  says : 

With  any  kind  borne  on  thy  neck  or  hand, 

Secure  from  peril  visit  every  land. 

On  all  thy  wand' rings  honours  shall  attend 

And    noxious    airs    shall    ne'er    thy   health    offend ; 

Whatever  prince  thy  just  petition  hears, 

Fear  no  repulse,  he'll  listen  to  thy  prayers. 

The  ruby  was  supposed  to  be  endowed  with  the  power  of  shin- 
ing in  the  dark,  lighting  up  a  room  as  a  lamp,  whence  its  ancient 
name  of  lychnis,  also  applied  to  the  spinel.  According  to  the  Talmud, 
the  only  light  Noah  had  in  the  Ark  was  that  of  the  carbuncle,  car- 
bunculus  in  the  past  covering  the  ruby  as  well  as  garnet  and  spinel. 
Its  virtues  were  very  similar  to  those  of  the  garnet,  with  which  in  the 
Middle  Ages  at  least,  and  to  a  certain  extent  long  before,  it  was  con- 
founded. 


SAPPHIRE. 


Hyacinthus  was  the  ancient  Greek  name  for  our  sapphire.  You 
all  know  the  story  of  Hyacinth — that  beautiful  Laconian  youth  of 
whom  Apollo  was  so  fond;  whom  he  joined  in  all  his  pleasures  and 
games.  You  have  read  how  Hyacinth  was  killed  by  the  rebound  of 
the  quoit  which  Apollo  threw  all  too  far  and  well;  and  how,  after 
vainly  trying  to  save  his  young  companion,  he  exclaimed  over  the 
dead  body:  "Thou  diest,  Hyacinth,  robbed  of  thy  youth  by  me. 
Thine  is  the  suffering,  mine  the  crime.  Would  that  I  could  die  for 
thee !  But  since  that  may  not  be,  thou  shalt  live  with  me  in  memory 
and  in  song.  My  lyre  shall  celebrate  thee,  my  song  shall  tell  thy 
fate,  and  thou  shalt  become  a  flower  inscribed  with  my  regrets." 

And  even  as  Apollo  spoke,  the  blood  flowing  on  the  ground 
ceased  to  be  blood.  A  flower  sprang  up,  the  legend  reads,  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  Tyrian ;  resembling  the  lily,  except  that  one  is  purple, 
the  other  like  silver.  Or,  in  the  exact  words  of  Ovid : 

Flos  oritur  formamque  capit  quam  lilia,  si  non 
Purpurens  color  hie,  orgenteus  esset  in  illis. 

Upon  the  petals  of  this  flower,  as  we  are  told  further,  Apollo 
stamped  indelibly  the  Greek  AI,  AI  (Ah !  Ah !)  to  render  eternal  the 
memory  of  his  sorrow,  which  remains  to  this  day. 

About  nothing  in  mineralogy  has  controversy  raged  more  fiercely 
than  this  flower.  For  centuries  the  discussion  continued,  opinion 
differing  as  to  whether  it  was  this  or  that,  but  finally  settled  on  the 
fleur-de-lys,  which  follows  the  description  better  than  any  other,  in 
color,  in  shape,  and  even  to  the  AI  on  its  petals. 

Solinus,  a  connoisseur  in  gems,  flourishing  two  centuries  after 
Pliny,  that  is  around  250  A.  D.,  describes  the  hyacinth  exactly  as  our 
sapphire  is  now. 

Sapphire  in  all  its  colors,  as  well  as  ruby,  is  corundum,  the  hard- 
est of  all  substances  next  to  diamond.  Adamas,  the  Greek  word  for 
indomitable  (whence  adamantine  and  diamond),  was  applied  by  the 
ancients  to  corundum  before  the  diamond  became  known.  Hyacin- 
thus covered  the  red  ruby,  the  blue  sapphire,  and  variations  of  the 
latter,  more  particularly  yellow.  The  blue  sapphire  was  known  as 
sapphirus  hyacinthus,  from  lapis-lazuli,  the  blue  mineral  of  our  time, 
then  synonymous  with  azure,  and  called  sapphirus. 

The  ancients  seemed  to  understand  only  three  varieties  of  corun- 
dum, the  red,  blue  and  yellow,  but  besides  these  there  are  green, 
violet,  salmon  pink  and  white.  Now,  as  formerly,  the  gem  color  is 
a  deep,  velvety,  uniform  cornflower  blue.  When  "Oriental"  is  placed 
as  a  prefix  to  topaz,  chrysolite,  emerald,  amethyst,  the  corundum  in 
some  one  of  its  fancy  shades  is  always  meant.  Unnecessary  to  say 

42 


that  these  are  harder,  more  brilliant  and  often  more  beautiful  than 
the  gems  they  counterfeit. 

Besides  all  these  varieties  of  color,  there  are  the  asteriated  stones, 
always  cut  en  cabochon  and  showing  the  six  distinct  rays  of  a 
star.  This  star  is  due  partly  to  the  method  of  cutting,  designed  to 
bring  it  out,  but  also  to  the  peculiar  arrangement  of  the  original 
material,  supposed  to  be  cleft  by  innumerable  tiny  cavities  in  symmet- 
rical lines.  The  corundum  exhibiting  this  peculiarity  is  apt  to  be 
less  clear  than  the  gem  sapphire.  It  is  frequently  almost  opaque  and 
subject  to  various  defects.  In  color  it  varies  from  deep  indigo  to 
very  pale  gray  blue,  sometimes  with  a  hint  of  ruby  in  its  depths.  The 
ruby  is  also  found  in  asteria  form,  but  less  frequently  than  the  sap- 
phire. The  pale  stone  is  apt  to  be  more  clear,  and  therefore  more 
lovely,  than  the  dark  blue,  but  is  not  so  much  prized  by  jewelers. 

A  cutter  of  genius  recently  tried  bringing  out  the  star,  not  in 
the  crown  of  a  cabochon  stone,  but  in  the  depths,  at  the  culet,  of  a 
clear  transparent  specimen,  steel  blue  or  gray  in  color,  cut  brilliant. 
The  stone  was  one  karat,  and  from  a  dealer  in  Maiden  Lane  he  re- 
ceived for  it  $100. 

No  exceptional  value  as  a  rule  is  attached  to  star  stones,  though 
they  are  subtle  and  alluring  if  clear  and  of  a  soft  lustre.  They 
usually  cost  about  the  same  as  a  fine  gem  stone,  which  in  its  turn  is 
less  than  a  ruby  of  the  same  size  and  quality.  A  flawless  karat  sap- 
phire seldom  fetches  even  half  the  same  grade  of  ruby.  Fifty  dollars 
often  will  buy  a  good  karat  sapphire  of  the  conventional  blue. 

Besides  the  asteria,  there  is  also  the  opalescent  ruby  or  sapphire, 
called  Oriental  girasol;  or,  according  to  the  color,  ruby,  sapphire, 
topaz  cat's-eye.  This  opalescence,  contrary  to  the  veiled  asteria,  has 
a  sheen  which  is  almost  a  glitter,  and  a  spot  or  line  follows  the  eye 
instead  of  a  star.  It  is  always  cut  en  cabochon. 

The  flaws  in  sapphire  are  the  same  as  in  ruby;  clouds,  white 
streaks,  different  colored  layers.  Much  depends,  for  bringing  out  the 
best  tint,  on  the  cutter.  By  clever  arrangement  of  the  facets,  he  will 
often  be  able  to  color  the  whole  mass  of  an  almost  colorless  stone 
from  one  spot  of  clear  blue.  Such  a  stone  is  shown  to  advantage  by 
being  set  deep  in  gold.  All  blue  sapphires,  even  the  best,  turn  very 
dark,  almost  black,  by  evening  light.  It  is  pre-eminently  a  daytime 
stone. 

Saffron  yellow  tinged  with  red  is  the  most  valuable  of  the 
"fancy"  sapphires,  or  else  a  pure  citron  yellow  with  a  golden  light. 
Pale  tints  of  the  primary  colors  are  lovely,  but  fairly  common.  The 
violet  is  rare,  and  is  a  more  attractive  stone,  more  delicate  in  tint,  and 
more  brilliant  than  the  amethyst.  White  sapphire,  in  hardness  8.5, 
half  a  degree  less  than  colored  sapphire,  lacks  the  peculiar  beauty 
of  diamond,  the  prismatic  play. 

Ceylon  is  the  home  of  the  "gem"  color,  as  of  so  many  other 
beautiful  stones,  but  a  fine  quality  of  light  and  peacock  blue  comes 
from  Siam.  This  occurrence  was  known  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  but  not  worked  until  1875.  In  Burmah  five  hun- 
dred rubies  are  found  to  one  sapphire,  but  while  fine  rubies  exceed- 

43 


ing  five  karats  in  weight  are  exceedingly  rare,  large  sapphires  are 
quite  frequent.  The  color  of  the  Burmah  sapphire  is  so  dark  as  to  be 
almost  black,  not  to  be  compared  to  the  best  of  Ceylon. 

America  is  not  without  its  representation.  In  Montana  deposits 
were  discovered  during  1865,  but  not  systematically  worked,  for 
gold  more  than  precious  stones,  until  1891.  The  Montana  gems  are 
small,  but  especially  lustrous.  They  are  a  bright  blue,  with  a  peculiar 
metallic  sheen.  Many  prefer  the  softer  tint  and  lustre  of  the  Oriental 
stones. 

Sapphire  is  "reconstructed"  the  same  way  as  ruby,  and  even 
more  successfully,  for  the  sapphire  lacks  the  vital  beauty  of  its  queen- 
ly sister.  Sapphire  is  one  of  the  most  easily  imitated  of  all  stones. 
The  gem  color  looks  much  the  same  whether  natural,  reconstructed, 
doublet  or  glass.  Indeed  the  artificial  are  often  the  more  beautiful. 

It  is  the  birthstone  for  September,  an  alternative  to  the  diamond 
for  April,  and  the  guardian  angel  talismanic  gem  for  July.  It  stands 
for  constancy,  truth  and  virtue,  and  cures  diseases  of  the  mind.  In 
mediaeval  times  its  magic  was  considered  the  same  as  the  ruby,  yet 
its  less  insurgent  color  made  a  difference,  for  it  was  used  to  cool  the 
blood,  and  was  much  worn  by  the  priesthood,  as  it  is  still  in  Brazil. 
Having  power  over  the  mind,  it  guarded  its  wearer  against  insanity, 
as  the  ruby  did  against  suicide.  It  was  said  to  be  the  one  gem  in  the 
Declaration,  placed  over  the  High  Priest's  Breastplate,  in  the  old  days 
of  the  Jews.  A  sapphire  is  also  set  in  the  cross  surmounting  the  Eng- 
lish crown. 


44 


EMERALD. 


Emerald,  the  flower  of  the  Beryl  family,  has  this  good  thing 
about  it — its  habitat  is  extremely  limited.  You  need  not  rack  your 
brain  for  the  thousand  and  one  places  from  which  it  comes.  On  the 
contrary,  in  its  "gem"  color,  a  rich,  deep  green,  the  output  is  almost 
entirely  confined  to  one  spot  on  the  globe — the  northwestern  section 
of  South  America,  in  Columbia,  near  Bogota.  The  mines  there,  for 
the  most  part  old  and  not  scientifically  worked,  are  almost  inacces- 
sible. Whether  the  resources  are  in  truth  rich,  and  the  investment  of 
American  energy  and  capital  in  time  may  bring  them  forth,  or 
whether  the  stone  is  as  scarce  as  the  market  seems  to  indicate,  one 
thing  is  certain:  a  fine  emerald  of  perfect  color,  the  deep,  velvety, 
moss  green,  commands  a  price  higher  than  the  finest  diamonds. 
Three  hundred  dollars  a  karat  is  asked  for  such  emeralds  and  readily 
obtained.  Even  at  that  price  they  are  few  and  far  between.  Taken 
home  by  the  Spanish  conquerors,  these  emeralds  are  known  to  the 
present  generation  as  "old  Spanish  emeralds,"  whose  price  continues 
to  soar  and  soar.  Others,  of  a  light  green,  sometimes  with  a  slightly 
yellowish  tone,  are  more  plentiful  and  much  cheaper.  Colombia  pro- 
duces these  too,  and  New  South  Wales  is  sending  some,  together 
with  Takawaja  in  Asiatic  Russia;  but  the  gem  color  has  been  scarce 
from  Nero's  day  to  ours,  and  happy  is  she  who  has  inherited  a  fine 
one  from  her  ancestors. 

You  have  all  read  how  Nero,  who  was  near-sighted,  followed 
the  gladiatorial  games  in  the  Coliseum  with  an  emerald.  Either  the 
reflection  on  its  polished  surface  brought  the  spectacle  close  to  his 
eye,  or  else  it  was  a  pale  stone,  hollowed  out  on  both  sides,  and  thin 
enough  to  see  through,  a  forerunner  of  the  modern  lorgnette. 
Precious  and  wonderful  seemed  such  a  possession  then,  attributed  to 
the  virtue  of  the  gem  itself  instead  of  the  cutting,  though  inexpen- 
sive eye-glasses  bring  about  a  similar  boon  in  a  better  manner  now. 
It  was  thought  in  those  days  that  to  the  emerald  alone  was  given  this 
power ;  but  now  we  know  better ;  every  transparent  crystal  cut  with  a 
convex,  concave  or  even  flat  surface  is  capable  of  like  magic 
power.  Over  this  question,  whether  the  relief  to  Nero's  eyes  was 
obtained  by  reflection  or  the  principle  at  the  base  of  modern  mechani- 
cal correction  of  myopia,  antiquarians  have  wrangled  for  a  hundred 
years.  The  fashionable  jewels  in  Nero's  time  were  for  the  most  part 
cut  "en  cabochon,"  convex,  like  the  carbuncle  to-day,  to  deepen  and 
enhance  the  color  and  also  to  conceal  defects.  But  the  emerald,  its 
color  always  true,  gained  nothing  by  this  treatment  except  when 
badly  flawed.  So  it  began  to  be  cut  flat,  possibly  for  some  reason  con- 

45 


cave,  and  thus  Nero  may  have  discovered  its  value  to  his  defective 
eyes. 

Moreover,  green  is  a  pleasant,  restful  color  to  look  into,  as  we 
all  know,  who  have  trees  in  our  grounds,  or  green  furnishings  in  our 
homes.  Nature  knew  what  she  was  about  when  she  made  the  earth 
brown  and  vegetation  green.  If  it  were  not  so,  if  these  two  vast 
surfaces  were  a  strong  scarlet  or  a  hard  blue,  we  might  all  go  mad ! 
Even  the  sea  has  a  powerful  admixture  of  green,  and  the  sky  is  not 
without  its  ameliorating  influence.  It  is  reserved  for  man,  and  man 
alone,  to  call  forth  garish  tints  to  clash  with  Nature's  endless  har- 
mony. When  she  affects  a  strenuous  hue,  and  this  mostly  in  the 
tropics,  where  it  has  a  certain  place,  she  uses  it  sparingly. 

Emeralds  were  first  brought  to  Europe  in  any  quantity  from 
South  America,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  from  then 
till  1830  all  emeralds  in  the  market  were  from  the  mines  of  Colombia. 
The  spot  pointed  out  to  the  Spaniards,  on  March  3rd,  1537,  by  the 
Indians  who  had  presented  them  with  a  gift  of  emeralds,  is  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Bogota.  The  deposit  at  this  place,  Somondoco, 
whose  wild,  inaccessible  heights  caused  the  Spaniards  to  abandon 
their  works  there,  was  in  1901  started  up  again  by  an  English  com- 
pany, but  as  yet  only  second  quality  stones  have  been  found. 

About  one  hundred  miles  from  Somondoco,  another  locality 
richer  and  of  greater  importance  was  discovered,  and  is  now  the  only 
one  in  Colombia  where  fine  emeralds  are  met  with.  One  mine  there 
is  named  "Esmeralda" ;  but  the  Indians  are  hostile,  the  climate  un- 
healthful,  and  the  output  limited.  It  is  somewhat  west  of  the  cele- 
brated Muzo  claims,  more  or  less  abandoned,  about  94  miles  north- 
east of  Bogota.  In  the  face  of  all  this,  it  is  quite  comprehensible  why 
the  emerald  is  the  most  expensive  of  stones,  when  of  the  desired  tint 
and  without  marked  defects.  So  seldom  is  it  perfect,  that  "as  rare 
as  an  emerald  without  a  flaw"  has  passed  into  a  saying.  While  easily 
imitated  in  glass  and  doublets,  the  emerald  so  far  has  defied  "recon- 
struction," another  factor  in  its  ever-increasing  scarcity  and  cost. 
The  cost  is  all  the  more  amazing  when  one  realizes  that  its  color  for 
these  days,  when  soft  olive  prevails,  is  too  intense ;  that  its  lustre  is 
by  no  means  brilliant ;  and  that  it  is  the  least  durable  of  the  orthodox 
precious  stones.  When  taken  from  the  mines  the  mineral  is  said  to  be 
quite  soft,  like  certain  marbles,  because  of  a  large  admixture  of  water, 
but  hardens  with  exposure  to  the  air.  In  gem  form  the  hardness  is 
something  less  than  true  topaz  and  not  much  greater  than  garnet — 
7.5  to  8.  Its  specific  gravity  is  2.65  to  2.75,  hardly  more  than  quartz, 
and  its  lustre  vitreous  to  resinous.  Its  composition  is  silica  68 ;  alum- 
ina 15  to  20;  glucina  11  to  14.  The  coloring  matter  is  due  to  chrom- 
ium, which  with  various  affinities  produces  widely  varying  hues. 

In  form,  when  placed  on  the  market,  it  is  usually  step-cut,  the 
rich  green  being  most  effective  thereby ;  but  when  sufficiently  clear,  it 
is  cut  brilliant,  and  when  clouded  or  defective  shows  best  en  cabo- 
chon. 

Pliny  says  it  was  universally  agreed  not  to  engrave  so  valuable 
a  stone.  Engraved  emeralds  are  the  rarest  of  the  rare. 

46 


The  ancients  believed  that  the  emerald  had  power  to  cure  diseases 
of  the  eye.  Another  notion  was  that  it  would  reveal  the  inconstancy 
of  lovers  by  changing  color.  It  was  the  symbol  of  immortality,  and 
helped  its  wearer  to  resist  temptation  and  sin.  As  late  as  the  seven- 
teenth century,  powdered  emerald  was  used  as  a  drug.  It  was  re- 
garded as  a  powerful  remedy  for  epilepsy,  dysentery,  fever  and  the 
bites  of  serpents.  Its  green  refulgence  was  supposed  to  dazzle  the 
reptiles,  as  Moore  has  noticed  in  his  lines : 

Blinded   like   serpents   when   they  gaze 
Upon  the  emerald's  virgin  blaze. 

Emerald  is  the  birthstone  for  May  and  the  guardian  angel  talis- 
manic  gem  for  June,  but  centuries  ago  the  nations  were  divided  on 
this  subject,  half  preferring  the  agate,  now  the  birthstone  for  June. 
In  fact  these  months  and  gems  were  exactly  reversed.  Modern  ap- 
proval seems  to  uphold  the  Arabian,  Poles  and  Russians,  instead  of 
the  Jews,  Romans,  Isidorus,  and  Italians. 

Of  mighty  use  to  seers  who  seek  to  pry 

Into  the  future  hid  from  mortal  eye. 

Wear  it  with  reverence  due,  'twill  wealth  bestow. 

And  words  persuasive  from  thy  lips  shall  flow, 

As  though  the  gift  of  eloquence  inspired 

The  stone  itself  or  living  spirit  fired. 

Hung  round  the  neck  it  cures  the  ague's  chill, 

Or  falling  sickness,  dire  mysterious  ill; 

Its  hues  so  soft  refresh  the  wearied  eye, 

And  furious  tempest  banish  from  the  sky: 

So  with  chaste  power  it  tames  the  furious  mood, 

And  cools  the  wanton  thoughts  that  fire  the  blood. 

Marbodus. 


47 


CHRYSOBERYL. 


Chrysoberyl,  though  hard,  8.5,  and  rather  heavy,  3.5  to  3.8,  with 
lustre  vitreous  to  resinous,  is  valued  not  so  much  in  its  normal  state, 
which  may  be  yellowish  green  or  brown,  transparent  or  opaque,  but 
for  its  two  famous  varieties,  the  cat's-eye  and  alexandrite. 

In  Ceylon,  the  cat's-eye  is  the  last  thing  an  Oriental  will  part 
with,  for  it  is  a  luck-stone,  a  charm  against  evil.  It  is  also  the  em- 
blem of  endless  prosperity.  In  Europe,  its  price  is  governed  largely 
by  fashion.  A  fine  karat  stone  may  be  worth  ten  dollars  or  a  hun- 
dred. When  the  Duke  of  Connaught  gave  one  to  his  bride,  Princess 
Margaret  of  Prussia,  it  at  once,  in  England,  became  the  vogue. 

In  America,  the  cat's-eye  is  scarcely  known.  A  few  specimens 
are  at  Tiffany's  for  those  willing  to  pay  the  price,  yet  while  of  good 
color,  they  have  not  always  the  perfect  streak,  which  is  white,  in- 
frequently golden,  and  well-defined,  running  evenly  from  end  to  end 
across  the  middle  of  the  stone,  opaque  and  cut  en  cabochon.  The 
ray  should  be  single  with  the  edges  snowing  brighter,  particularly  by 
artificial  light  or  in  the  sun,  and  exhibiting  a  brilliance  almost  phos- 
phorescent. Specimens  in  which  the  line  spreads  vaguely,  or  is  re- 
peated one,  two  or  three  times,  are  not  the  best.  Color  is  of  no 
consequence  compared  to  the  perfection  of  the  ray.  Olive  green 
seems  most  favored,  but  brown  has  its  admirers.  The  ray,  like  the 
asteria  of  the  sapphire  and  ruby,  is  supposed  to  be  composed  of 
multitudes  of  minute  parallel  tubes  which,  when  structurally  perfect, 
by  skillful  cutting  can  be  made  to  reflect  light  still  more  effectively. 
Yet  scientists  do  not  explain  this  sufficiently  clearly  to  impress  it  on 
the  lay  mind. 

Cymophane  is  the  ancient  name  derived  from  a  word  signifying 
"floating  cloud,"  given  to  the  opalescent  variety,  rather  than  to  the 
distinct  cat's-eye  specimen,  which  simply  is  the  cymophane  carried 
by  clever  manipulators  a  step  farther,  it  being  possible  to  transform 
the  cymophane  into  the  cat's-eye,  but  not  vice-versa. 

The  chrysoberyl  cat's-eye  has  an  understudy,  so  to  speak,  in 
quartz,  a  far  lighter  and  softer  stone,  and  not  found  in  any  shade  of 
green,  only  in  greenish  or  yellowish  gray  and  brown.  It  is  semi- 
transparent,  the  quartz  cat's-eye,  while  the  chrysoberyl  generally  is 
opaque.  When  cut  en  cabochon  it  shows  a  band  of  light,  but  silky 
rather  than  phosphorescent,  resulting  from  the  fibrous  grain  of  the 
stone  itself,  or  an  intimate  admixture  of  asbestos.  The  quartz  cannot 
be  compared  to  the  chrysoberyl,  and  when  side  by  side  could  never 
be  taken  for  it,  even  by  a  novice.  Yet  sometimes  the  false  is  sold  for 
the  true,  by  irresponsible  parties  in  Ceylon,  where  both  abound. 

48 


Cat's-eye  was  undoubtedly  known  to  the  ancients.  It  was  de- 
scribed by  Solinus  as  "a  gem  picked  up  in  the  bed  of  the  Euphrates, 
in  appearance  like  the  Proconesian  marble,  except  that  in  the  middle 
convexity  of  the  stones  a  green  thing  shines  through  like  the  pupil  of 
an  eye."  This  more  precisely  applies  to  the  quartz  cat's-eye. 

In  Brazil,  the  normal  chrysoberyl  is  found  transparent,  trans- 
lucent or  semi-opaque,  and  without  the  cat's-eye.  It  is  called 
''Brazilian  chrysolite"  and  is  very  like  the  true  yellowish  green  chry- 
solite or  peridot,  but  lacks  its  brilliance.  Perfectly  transparent  stones 
even  in  Brazil,  where  they  are  valued  for  their  color  rather  than  the 
chatoyant  ray,  are  very  rare.  When  found,  they  are  generally  cut  en 
cabochon,  with  convex  gold  at  their  back  to  increase  the  lustre. 

The  newly  discovered  "spodumene"  of  North  Carolina  has  yel- 
lowish green  crystals  so  like  the  "Brazilian  chrysolite"  that  in  gem 
form  they  might  easily  be  mistaken  for  each  other,  though  spodumene 
is  inferior  to  chrysoberyl  in  hardness  and  of  entirely  different  con- 
stitution. 

The  singular  alexandrite  is  a  third  variety  of  chrysoberyl.  It 
was  so  called  because  discovered  in  the  Ural  Mountains  within  the 
Czar's  dominions  on  the  day  in  1830  when  Alexander  II.  of  Russia 
attained  his  majority.  Since  then,  larger  and  more  beautiful  speci- 
mens have  turned  up  in  the  world's  great  jewel-box,  Ceylon.  The 
finest  of  these  are  transparent,  very  dark,  olive  green  by  day  and 
rich  raspberry  red  by  artificial  light.  Some  might  be  described  as  a 
clean  pistache  or  tourmaline  green  by  day  and  purplish  pink  or 
amethystine  by  night.  Usually  one  of  the  colors,  either  green  or  red, 
is  pale  and  indefinite,  if  the  stone  is  shallow,  or  else  too  dark,  if  thick. 
Alexandrite  is  not  effective  unless  rather  large  and  deep,  skillfully 
cut  and  of  the  best  color.  A  stone  that  is  the  correct  hue  both  by 
night  and  by  day  is  extremely  rare.  Yet  the  writer  possesses  one 
such,  a  Ceylon  stone.  Its  green  by  day  is  always  olive  or  sage,  the 
sure  sign  of  Cingalese  parentage,  while  its  gala  color  is  a  magnifi- 
cent red,  sweeping  the  whole  surface  in  brilliant  flashes.  This  is 
perhaps  the  gem  alexandrite  of  Ceylon,  not  so  effective  by  day,  in 
its  dull  sage  green,  sometimes  mixed  with  brown,  but  a  wonder  of 
burgundy  red  by  night,  while  the  Russian  gem  at  its  best  is  a  very 
pale  emerald  by  day  and  a  columbine  pink  at  night. 

Not  only  are  the  Russian  crystals  smaller  than  the  Cingalese, 
but  the  green  is  frequently  uncertain,  bluish,  without  depth  or  allure- 
ment, nor  is  the  red  satisfactory.  All  the  same  the  Russian  is  favored 
both  by  mineralogists  and  jewelers ;  and  when  of  a  light  clear  emerald 
green  by  day  and  a  purplish  pink  or  amethystine  ruby  by  night,  it  is 
a  striking  gem.  The  Russian,  however,  is  exceedingly  defective, 
flaws  interfering  with  its  brilliance,  while  the  Cingalese  is  apt  to 
be  structurally  far  more  perfect. 

Strongly  dichroic,  even  trichroic,  the  secret  of  the  strange 
changes  from  green  to  red,  the  alexandrite  appeals  to  Russia  not 
only  through  its  first  appearance  there,  but  because  it  exhibits  the 
national  military  colors.  Still  it  is  odd,  as  a  rule,  rather  than  beau- 
tiful, high-priced  largely  because  it  is  scarce,  and  growing  scarcer 

49 


every  year.  Moreover,  it  is  the  only  stone  which  offers  an  entirely 
different  color  by  day  and  by  night. 

Its  price  varies  from  $40  to  $100  per  karat,  according  to  its 
perfection,  and  one  might  say,  according  to  the  need  and  knowledge 
of  the  one  who  wants  to  buy  or  sell. 

Alexandrite  is  owned  almost  exclusively  by  collectors.  The 
public,  in  this  part  of  the  world  at  least,  knows  it  little  and  values  it 
less.  Considering  the  lack  of  pleasure  it  gives  the  eye,  its  price 
seems  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  charm.  When  opaque,  it  suggests 
the  bloodstone,  and  even  then  is  not  inexpensive.  Often  it  cannot 
be  bought  at  all,  unless  a  collector  parts  with  one. 

Those  who  live  with  the  alexandrite  say  it  grows  on  you;  its 
very  strangeness  becomes  in  the  end  a  potent  attraction — but  though 
valued  greatly  in  Russia  and  Ceylon,  it  is  not  in  this  country  a 
favorite  with  the  jewelers,  who  pronounce  it  "a  slow  seller." 


SPINEL. 


Spinel  resembles  ruby  in  color,  but  in  most  other  respects  is 
wholly  different.  It  is  softer,  7.5  to  8,  and  lighter,  3.5  to  3.7,  also 
not  dichroic,  showing  the  same  color  in  all  directions,  and  single  re- 
fracting. Its  lustre,  like  ruby,  is  vitreous,  and  it  takes  a  brilliant 
polish,  but  not  equal  to  ruby. 

It  is  said  that  all  red  spinels  have  a  tinge  of  yellow  reflected  from 
the  interior  of  the  stone  which  absolutely  distinguishes  them  from 
true  ruby.  The  deeper  the  color,  if  clear,  blood-red,  poppy-red,  car- 
mine, the  more  highly  prized.  This  is  the  gem  color. 

Spinels  of  a  light  shade  of  rose  inclining  to  violet  are  referred 
to  as  balas  rubies.  Rose-colored  topaz  closely  resembles  this  variety, 
but  topaz  is  double  refracting  and  strongly  dichroic.  Spinels  tend- 
ing towards  purple  in  tint  suggest,  even  if  paler,  the  almandine  of  the 
garnet  tribe.  There  is  also  a  spinel  which  comes  near  the  amethyst 
in  color,  and  is  often  sold  as  such,  though  rarer  and  more  valuable. 

The  spinel  of  a  pronounced  shade  of  yellow  is  called  rubicelle. 
It  may  be  orange-red,  and  often  accompanies  topaz  in  Minas  Novas, 
Brazil,  where  it  is  known  as  vinegar-spinel,  on  account  of  its  yellow- 
ish red.  The  name  vermeille,  applied  by  the  French  to  certain  gar- 
nets, is  likened  to  rubicelle.  This  color,  in  garnets  at  least,  is  con- 
siderably more  valued  than  it  used  to  be,  since  the  hyacinth  has 
again  come  to  the  fore. 

Fine  spinels  are  more  abundant  than  fine  rubies,  because  more 
free  from  defects.  Small  ones  are  plenty,  but  those  of  large  size, 
weighing  from  eight  to  ten  karats,  are  rare.  The  large  "Black 
Prince  Ruby"  in  the  English  crown  is  not  a  ruby,  but  a  spinel.  It 
was  presented  to  the  Prince  by  Don  Pedro,  King  of  Castile,  and  worn 
in  his  helmet  by  Henry  V.  of  England  at  the  battle  of  Agincourt.  It 
is  cut  en  cabochon  and  has  a  hole  showing  its  Indian  origin  drilled 
through  it  which  has  been  plugged  up  by  a  smaller  stone.  For  long 
it  was  thought  to  be  a  ruby. 

Spinels  were  found  by  Marco  Polo,  as  early  as  the  thirteenth 
century,  in  Badakshan.  They  are  also  found  in  Ceylon,  Burmah, 
Australia,  and  with  rubies  and  sapphires  in  Siam.  In  the  United 
States  they  are  practically  non-existent,  except  green  spinels,  some 
transparent  and  used  as  gems.  Such  have  been  taken  from  North 
Carolina.  It  is  considered  remarkable  that  they  are  not  found  with 
sapphires  in  Montana. 

Twinned  spinels,  two  faces  with  one  back,  are  so  common  that 
other  minerals,  including  diamonds,  are  said  sometimes  to  be  twinned 
"according  to  spinel  law."  Often  one  of  a  twin  adjoins  a  third,  and 

51 


that  again  a  fourth,  with  the  common  base,  making  very  complicated 
groups. 

Black  spinel  is  called  pleonaste.  It  is  greenish  black  in  mass, 
dark  green  in  thin  layers.  Like  all  spinels,  it  takes  a  good  polish, 
and  may  be  used  in  mourning  jewelry.  It  occurs  near  Kandy  in 
Ceylon,  because  of  which  it  has  been  known  as  Ceylonite.  Small, 
brilliant  crystals  were  found  imbedded  in  some  of  the  blocks  ejected 
by  Mt.  Somma,  the  ancient  crater  of  Vesuvius.  Large  specimens  have 
been  discovered  at  Amity,  N.  Y.,  but  few  are  suitable  for  cutting. 
Blue  spinel  is  also  known,  but  like  black,  it  is  of  little  importance. 

The  balas  ruby,  or  light  rose  spinel,  according  to  ancient  lore, 
represses  lascivious  thoughts,  heals  quarrels  between  friends,  and 
gives  health  to  the  body. 

Spinel  was  known  to  the  ancients,  but  became  confused  with 
ruby.  The  term  "lychnis,"  a  lamp,  a  flame  shining  in  the  dark,  meant 
either.  Lychnis  was  supposed  to  protect  the  crops  from  hail  and 
tempests. 

There  is  no  mention  of  spinel  in  the  mediaeval  or  modern  lists 
of  natal  stones.  Not  till  comparatively  recent  times  was  it  distin- 
guished by  competent  mineralogists  from  ruby. 

A  story  regarding  spinels  in  Ceylon  is  very  similar  to  that  of 
chrysolite  on  the  Island  of  Topazius.  The  Arabs  had  a  tradition  that 
sea-cows  gathered  spinels  from  the  Kohaf  Mountains  and  left  them 
on  the  ground  at  their  base.  Stone-gatherers  would  throw  lumps  of 
clay  over  them,  the  cows,  disappointed  at  not  finding  their  plunder, 
returned  to  the  sea,  when  humans  came  and  gathered  them  in. 


BERYL. 

BERYL-SONG. 

We   whose   home  is   the   Beryl, 
Fire-spirits  of  dread  desire, 
Who  entered  in 
By  a  secret  sin, 

'Gainst  whom  all  powers  that  strive  with  ours  are  sterile, — 
Fire-spirits  of  dread  desire, 
We  whose  home  is  the  Beryl. 

Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti. 

Sometimes  it  happens  that  a  humble  family  is  found  closely 
related  to  a  great  lady.  The  world  does  not  know  this  until  suddenly 
it  comes  out.  Then  everybody  is  more  or  less  surprised  and  em- 
barrassed. 

The  emerald  is  such  a  great  lady.  She  is  simply  the  vivid  green 
variety  of  the  beryl  group,  whose  other  phases  are  the  aquamarine 
and  its  yellow  kin.  These  poor  relations  of  the  aristocratic  sister, 
who  sits  secure  in  her  inaccessible  retreat,  are  of  comparatively  little 
importance,  though  precisely  like  her  in  all  except  personal  appear- 
ance. They  are  of  her  blood,  but  cannot  eat  at  her  table.  She  is  rich 
and  rare,  they  are  common. 

Aquamarine,  the  most  expensive  variety  of  beryl  next  to  emerald, 
is  a  trifle  harder  than  the  latter,  and  its  crystals  are  clear  and  often 
of  large  size,  but  it  is  found  in  abundance.  Its  name  means  sea- 
water  ;  the  "gem"  color  is  deep  water-blue ;  but  generally  it  is  various 
shades  of  light  blue  or  green,  and  colorless.  The  last,  if  slightly 
tinged  with  blue,  strongly  resembles  the  blue  diamond.  It  has,  be- 
sides the  tint,  almost  the  same  lustre,  but  without  prismatic  play.  All 
beryls  are  very  brilliant  by  artificial  light,  and  therefore  desirable 
evening  stones. 

Those  only,  either  blue  or  green,  which  suggest  sea-water  are 
called  aquamarines ;  but  all  are  identical  in  composition.  Beryl  proper 
usually  is  yellow.  The  deep  blue  are  from  North  Carolina,  California, 
Brazil  and  Siberia ;  the  yellow,  yellow  brown  and  golden  from  Con- 
necticut, the  Ural  Mountains  and  Siberia.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  best 
blue  is  ever  entirely  free  from  a  tinge  of  green. 

The  beryl  was  known  in  earliest  times  and  was  somewhat  en- 
graved upon.  It  is  of  a  singularly  compact  structure,  for  intagli 
found  thereon  often  retain  their  original  surface  polish  to  this  day. 
Not  so  the  emerald,  which  never  was  engraved  upon  in  the  time 
of  the  "perfect"  Greek  school,  but  at  a  later  period.  Engravings  on 
both,  beryl  as  well  as  emerald,  are  rare. 

Pliny  notes  the  variations  in  color  with  almost  the  exactness  of 
to-day.  The  most  admired,  he  says,  emulated  the  green  tint  of  pure 
sea-water.  Then  came  the  sapphire-like  sort,  and  after  that  a  yet 

53 


fainter  tinge  of  blue  which  was  the  one  used  for  engraving.  Last 
came  a  greasy  yellowish  green,  but  little  valued.  The  yellow  beryl 
of  to-day  seems  not  to  have  been  known. 

Beryl  was  then  highly  prized  for  rings  and  ear-drops,  and  was 
the  only  one  among  the  precious  stones  facetted  by  the  Roman 
jewelers,  who  cut  it  into  a  sexagonal  pyramid.  In  India  it  was  worn 
in  the  form  of  long,  cylindrical  beads,  though  the  most  perfect  in 
color  were  not  bored,  each  end  being  secured  by  a  gold  boss.  Then, 
as  now,  the  backs  were  often  painted,  to  deepen  the  tint,  and  set  solid. 
The  Hindoos  were  admirers  of  both  emerald  and  beryl  and  set  them 
much  the  same  way. 

The  intagli  were  sea-subjects  in  which  gods,  waves,  fishes, 
dolphins,  and  the  like  appeared.  Probably  the  grandest  intaglio  ex- 
tant of  the  Roman  period  is  the  bust  of  Julia  Titi,  on  an  aquamarine 
2y2  by  2*4  inches,  signed  by  Evodus.  For  nearly  1,000  years  it 
formed  the  knosp  of  a  golden  reliquary  presented  by  Charlemagne  to 
the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis,  in  which  it  was  set  with  convex  back  upper- 
most, being  regarded  as  an  invaluable  stone. 

The  beryl  was  a  favorite  for  engraving  with  artists  of  the 
Renaissance.  These  comparatively  modern  works  are  on  the  green 
sort,  the  sky-blue  being  much  more  rare.  The  term  aquamarine  seems 
not  to  have  been  bestowed.  Pliny  handicapped  them  with  long 
names  meaning  sapphire-blue  and  air-blue,  though  he  classed  them 
as  a  variety  of  beryl.  Bluish  ones  have  been  called  aquamarine,  green 
and  yellow  beryl,  within  the  last  forty  years. 

"It  is  the  vast  supply  poured  in  from  Saxony,  Siberia  and 
America,"  writes  King,  in  1865,  "that  has  sunk  the  value  of  this 
beautiful  stone  so  low  in  modern  times." 

Morganite,  the  rose  red  variety  of  beryl,  discovered  in  California 
in  1911,  and  found  later  in  Madagascar,  was  named  in  honor  of  the 
late  John  Pierpont  Morgan,  who,  through  the  gift  of  his  rare  collec- 
tion of  minerals  and  precious  stones,  a  part  of  the  Paris  Exposition 
of  1900,  to  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  did  so  much 
to  educate  the  world  concerning  them. 

The  yellow  is  the  least  valued,  yet  it  is  sometimes,  with  its  high 
lustre,  a  dream  of  beauty.  In  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  is  a  truly  splendid  golden  beryl  from  Connecticut.  One 
exactly  like  it  was  found  at  Tiffany's  at  a  trifling  price  for  so  en- 
chanting a  gem. 

Beryl,  while  not  free  from  defects,  is  very  clear.  The  first  idea 
that  led  to  modern  eye-glasses  was  caught  by  looking  through  a 
double  convex  beryl  as  long  ago  as  the  fifteenth  century.  Beryllus  is 
the  Latin  term  for  a  magnifying  glass — whence  the  German  "brille," 
a  pair  of  spectacles.  The  ancients  attributed  to  the  gem  itself  the 
quality  that  might  have  come  through  its  shape,  for  the  beryl  was 
long  supposed  to  endow  its  possessor  with  second  sight. 

You  remember  how  in  Rosetti's  beautiful  poem  "Rose  Mary," 
the  beryl  plays  so  important  a  part — is,  indeed,  the  chief  protag- 
onist— in  the  grave  situation  of  the  unfortunate  young  woman. 
Says  the  troubled  mother : 

54 


"Tall  Rose  Mary,  come  to  my  side, 
And  read  the  stars  if  you'd  be  a  bride. 
In  hours  whose  need  was  not  your  own, 
While  you  were  a  young  maid  yet  ungrown, 
You've  read  the  stars  in  the  Beryl-stone." 

The  lady  unbound  her  jeweled  zone 
And  drew  from  her  robe  the  Beryl-stone. 

Paler  yet  were  the  pale  cheeks  grown 
As  the  gray  eyes  sought  the  Beryl-stone. 

And  lo!  for  that  Foe  whose  curse  far-flown 
Had  bound  her  life  with  a  burning  zone, 
Rose  Mary  knew  the  Beryl-stone. 

Three  steps  back  from  her  Foe  she  trod : — 
"Love,  for  thy  sake !    In  Thy  Name,  O  God !" 
In  the  fair  white  hands  small  strength  was  shown; 
Yet  the  blade  flashed  high  and  the  edge  fell  prone, 
And  she  cleft  the  heart  of  the  Beryl-stone- 

And  lo!  on  the  ground  Rose  Mary  lay, 
With  a  cold  brow  like  the  snows  ere  May, 
With  a  cold  breast  like  the  earth  till  Spring. 

In  a  gracious  sleep  she  seemed  to  lie; 
And  over  her  head  her  hand  on  high 
Held  fast  the  sword  she  triumphed  by. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  the  stone  was  in  great  demand  for 
purposes  of  divination,  the  method  often  being  to  suspend  a  ring 
in  which  was  set  a  beryl  over  a  bowl  of  water,  the  edge  of  the  bowl 
marked  with  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  the  stone  giving  answer  to 
questions  by  stopping  before  certain  letters,  after  being  whirled 
about.  It  was  also  supposed  to  possess  power  over  evil  spirits,  and  a 
man  might  call  a  devil  out  of  hell,  to  answer  questions,  if  he  held  a 
beryl  in  his  mouth.  The  sphere  in  the  English  crown  is  set  with  a 
blue  beryl,  symbolic,  possibly,  of  these  magical  powers. 

As  the  birthstone  for  October  the  beryl  was  used  by  all  nations 
from  the  beginning  of  the  zodiacal  science,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  till 
the  opal  became  favored  by  moderns.  It  is  also  the  guardian  angel's 
talismanic  gem  for  December.  Happiness  and  everlasting  youth  are 
supposed  to  attend  its  possessor.  In  olden  times,  it  was  called  "the 
sweet-tempered  stone." 

Marbodus  says : 

The  most  admired  displays  a  softened  beam, 
Like  tranquil  seas  or  olive's  oily  gleam. 
This  potent  gem,  found  in  far  India's  mines, 
With  mutual  love  the  wedded  couple  binds; 
The  wearer  shall  to  wealth  and  honors  rise 
And   from   all   rivals  bear   the  wished-for  prize: 
Too  tightly  grasped,  as  if  instinct  with  ire, 
It  burns  the  incautious  hand  with  sudden  fire. 
Lave  this  in^  water,  it  a  wash  supplies 
For  feeble  sight  and  stops  convulsive  sighs. 


55 


OPAL. 


No  wonder  that  in  the  absence  of  the  diamond  as  we  know  it 
now,  with  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  flashing  from  its  pure  depths, 
the  opal,  in  a  different  way  exemplifying  the  same  idea,  should  once 
have  been  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes. 

"Of  all  precious  stones,"  says  Pliny,  "the  opal  is  the  most  diffi- 
cult to  describe,  since  it  combines  in  one  gem  the  beauties  of  many." 
He  also  observes  that,  like  the  emerald,  the  opal  was  almost  never 
engraved,  being  altogether  too  costly  and  rare. 

Sixteen  centuries  later  another  expressed  himself  in  these 
words :  "The  opal  is  a  precious  stone  which  has  in  it  the  bright  fiery 
flame  of  the  carbuncle,  the  fine  refulgent  purple  of  the  amethyst,  and 
a  whole  sea  of  the  emerald's  green  glory;  and  all  of  them  shining 
with  an  incredible  mixture  and  very  much  pleasure." 

Another  of  still  later  date,  speaking  of  the  red,  yellow,  green, 
blue  and  violet  of  the  opal,  mentions  how  they  "appear  at  times  in 
certain  parts  of  the  stone,  crossing  each  other  in  vivid  play  with  an 
effect  that  is  almost  magical." 

There  was,  indeed,  no  precious  stone  which  the  Romans  valued 
more  for  itself  alone.  In  those  days  it  was  rare  and  expensive.  Prob- 
ably all  in  existence  came  from  Hungary.  They  were  often  carried 
to  India  via  Constantinople,  whence  they  were  returned,  like  Brazilian 
diamonds  centuries  later,  with  an  Oriental  prefix  and  greatly  en- 
hanced price — so  valued  then  as  now  were  the  gems  of  India.  The 
East  has  produced  no  opals ;  and  it  is  the  one  gem  which  defies  imi- 
tation. 

Rarity  rather  than  beauty  fixes  value ;  rarity  and  beauty  in  equal 
measure — plus  popular  demand.  All  these  desirable  attributes  the 
opal  possessed  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era ;  but  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century  it  began  to  be  more  plentiful,  through  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Mexican  mines ;  and  after  the  publication  of  "Anne  of 
Geierstein,"  in  1831,  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  invented  the  supersti- 
tion of  its  ill  luck,  it  ceased  to  be  desired. 

Senator  Nonius,  in  the  reign  of  Julius  Caesar,  possessed  a  ring 
set  with  an  opal  as  large  as  a  filbert,  valued  at  $100,000.  Mark  An- 
thony coveted  the  jewel,  but  its  owner  turned  a  deaf  ear,  whereupon 
the  Senator  was  told  that  he  must  choose  between  the  opal  and  Rome, 
which  he  did  in  favor  of  his  gem. 

The  ancients,  like  the  Orientals  to  this  day,  considered  the  opal 
the  source  of  all  possible  good,  the  most  beneficent  as  well  as  the 
most  beautiful  of  precious  stones.  Not  only  to  them  did  it  possess 
specific  powers  of  its  own,  but  as  its  colors  symbolized  all  gems,  the 
ruby,  sapphire,  amethyst,  emerald,  so  its  magical  properties  were  sup- 

56 


posed  to  follow  suit.  It  was  also  a  remedy  for  eye  trouble,  to  which 
some  attribute  its  name. 

Probably  all  this  quite  as  much  as  its  monetary  value  influenced 
Nonius  to  give  up  Rome  rather  than  part  with  so  potent  a  talisman. 

Only  for  eight  decades,  and  exclusively  among  Europeans  and 
Anglo-Saxons,  has  the  opal  stood  for  misfortune,  and  that  solely  be- 
cause of  an  imaginative  writer's  arbitrary  whim.  A  lie  or  a  super- 
stition once  rooted  in  the  credulous  mind,  once  in  possession  of  the 
judgment  or  the  feelings,  is  difficult  of  eradication,  as  proved  but  too 
conclusively  in  1909  and  1914.  Yet  with  the  opal  as  the  Pole  and  the 
War,  there  were  some  who  kept  their  heads  and  discerned  instinc- 
tively the  truth. 

The  Empress  Eugenie  would  never  wear  the  opal,  fearful  of  ill- 
luck,  and  spent  half  her  life  dethroned  and  forgotten,  while  Queen 
Victoria  loved  the  stone,  presented  each  of  her  daughters  with  a 
parure  of  opals  and  diamonds,  and  died  reigning  over  half  the 
world ! 

Still,  with  all  this  detraction,  the  opal  loses  its  present  sinister 
significance  for  those  born  in  October.  Previous  to  the  eighteenth 
century,  all  nations  used  the  beryl.  Opal  symbolizes  hope,  innocence, 
purity. 

Pliny  says  the  opal  was  sometimes  called  Paedorus,  signifying 
youthful  love.  The  pseudo  Orpheus,  writing  two  centuries  before 
Christ,  seems  to  indicate  something  similar: 

With  its  complexion  of  a  lovely  boy, 
The  opal  fills  the  hearts  of  gods  with  joy; 
Whilst  by  the  mild  effulgence  of  its  light, 
Its  healing  power  restores  the  failing  sight. 

The  most  interesting  opal  reaching  the  market  at  the  present 
time  is  the  Australian.  Of  this  the  first  recorded  "find,"  in  Queens- 
land, was  in  1890.  The  miners  there,  as  well  as  in  New  South 
Wales,  work  with  difficulty,  the  long-continued  droughts  taking 
the  heart  out  of  men  and  killing  horses.  Yet  in  the  first  fifteen 
years  the  value  of  the  annual  output  increased  from  $15,000  to  more 
than  a  million,  not  counting  sales  which  cannot  be  followed.  The 
world  seems  to  be  depending  for  its  choicer  mineral  products  on  this 
distant  land  more  and  more. 

Hydrophane,  which  assumes  transparency  only  when  soaked  in 
water,  is  a  singular  variety  of  opal.  Like  the  two  famous  Southern 
Governors,  it  needs  at  frequent  intervals  a  drink.  The  stone  absorbs 
almost  its  bulk  in  water,  emits  small  bubbles  of  gas  as  the  liquid 
gradually  penetrates,  and  keeps  its  transparency  some  time,  but 
when  dry  again  becomes  opaque.  It  is  found  with  fire  opal,  is  gen- 
erally white  or  dull  yellow,  but  when  "full,"  like  its  human  pro- 
totype, often  appears  quite  brilliant.  Hydrophane  is  in  strong  con- 
trast to  Sir  Walter  Scott's  baleful  gem,  destroyed  by  a  single  drop  of 
water — holy  water !  That  fable  defies  not  only  history  but  every  law 
of  mineralogy. 

Opal,  like  pearl  and  turquoise,  is  greatly  improved  by  contact 
with  the  body.  Warmth  seems  to  bring  out  all  its  radiance,  while 

57 


cold  has  a  repressive  eftect.  Always  the  gem  is  more  beautiful  on  a 
dark  day,  in  an  interior,  with  the  light  striking  it  sparingly.  The 
open  day  reduces  its  wonders  to  a  ghastly  pallor,  particularly  if  the 
air  is  chill  and  the  sky  cloudless. 

The  process  of  nature  which  forms  opal  is  similar  to  that  of 
turquoise.  Its  hardness  is  5.5  to  6.5,  specific  gravity  2  to  2.2,  lustre 
sub- vitreous. 

For  centuries  the  mines  of  Hungary  were  the  main  source  of 
the  best  quality.  Not  only  was  it  harder,  but  the  harlequin  effect 
under  the  slightly  veiled,  milky  surface,  was  and  still  is,  by  jewelers, 
greatly  admired.  The  output  is  smaller  than  in  the  past,  but  it  is 
highly  esteemed,  for  it  is  the  most  durable,  with  the  smallest  admix- 
ture of  water,  of  any  in  existence.  But  the  Australian  deposits  are 
gradually  taking  the  place  of  the  Hungarian,  not  only  because  they 
are  of  almost  as  good  quality,  but  are  considerably  more  brilliant. 
The  Hungarian  is  milk-white  in  body,  with  the  colors,  in  subdued 
shades,  distributed  irregularly  in  small  patches.  These  pastel  tints, 
so  greatly  broken,  compared  to  the  superb  rose,  blue,  green  and 
purple  of  the  Australian,  with  its  more  uniform  distribution  over 
larger  areas,  seem  to  the  careless  observer  a  bit  tame,  but  they  are 
valued  by  experts  as  more  rare.  The  body  of  the  Australian  has  a 
decided  tinge  of  yellow,  a  good  background  for  the  bright,  broad 
flashes.  Altogether  it  seems  a  more  emotional  stone. 

There  is  a  tremendous  output  of  opal  from  Mexico,  often  ex- 
tremely beautiful  in  play  of  color,  blue  and  green  predominating, 
but  it  is  less  durable  than  the  Hungarian  or  Australian  and  in- 
clined to  fade. 

An  opal  of  interest  is  fire-opal,  called  by  the  ancient  Mexicans 
sun-opal,  in  deference  to  their  god.  This  was  first  brought  to  Europe 
by  Alexander  von  Humboldt.  In  body  color  it  ranges  from  yellowish 
to  brownish  red. 

The  Empress  Josephine  possessed  one  of  the  finest  fire-opals  of 
modern  times.  It  was  called  the  ' 'Burning  of  Troy,"  from  the 
blaze  on  its  surface.  The  obverse  was  opaque,  a  peculiarity  of  the 
Honduras  stone.  Where  is  this  wonder  now? 

In  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  is  a  superb  fire- 
opal  of  deep  luminous  red,  with  an  effect  similar  to  crackled  glass, 
or  frost  work.  This  might  well  be  the  famous  "Burning  of  Troy," 
except  that  it  is  less  a  sweep  of  flames  than  hot,  glowing,  scintillat- 
ing anthracite.  If  this  fiery  disturbance  is  due  to  flaws,  as  some 
think,  it  is  a  glorious  imperfection. 

The  most  recent  contribution  to  the  market  is  the  black  opal 
from  Lightning  Ridge,  New  South  Wales,  Australia,  where  it  was 
accidentally  found,  while  mining  the  usual  variety.  Not  all  have 
the  black  or  very  dark  green  body.  Frequently  it  is  gray,  light  or 
dark,  not  so  very  different  from  normal  opal,  only  with  a  more  bril- 
liant contrast  between  the  colors  and  the  background.  In  the  gem 
stone,  soft  dim  greens,  purples  and  passionate  reds  move  subtly  in 
the  shadows,  then  flash  forth  with  startling  fire,  yet  in  the  main 

58 


create  a  rich,  imaginative,  sombre  atmosphere  unlike  any  gem  on 
earth. 

But  we  cannot  be  happy  with  it  long.  The  supply,  widely  ex- 
ploited half  a  dozen  years  ago,  is  diminishing,  the  pocket  at  Light- 
ning Ridge  has  run  out,  with  nothing  in  sight.  Naturally,  its  price 
is  mounting  rapidly.  If  you  have  one  of  these  unique  gems,  think 
twice  before  you  part  with  it  and  hesitate  before  you  pass  one  by. 
Even  the  less  pronounced  black  opals  can  be  identified  by  almost 
anybody.  In  all  opaldom  there  is  nothing  quite  like  this  mingle  of 
colors  against  black,  green  or  smoke  gray.  Light  or  dark,  it  is 
sui  generis. 

Should  the  notion  of  its  influence  for  evil  pass  away,  and  the 
supply,  now  so  abundant,  begin  to  diminish,  it  is  quite  possible  that 
"noble"  opal  may  regain  its  former  exalted  position;  for  the  Hun- 
garian mines  are  failing,  the  Australian  in  a  desolate  country  are 
worked  under  difficulties,  the  Mexican  as  a  rule  if  abundant  and 
beautiful  is  of  inferior  quality,  and  it  is  unlikely  that  its  peculiar 
loveliness  ever  can  be  reproduced  by  human  skill. 

In  "The  Birth  of  the  Opal"  a  poetic  idea  is  caught  and  happily 
expressed  by  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox : 

The  Sunbeam  loved  the  Moonbeam, 

And  followed  her  low  and  high, 
But  the  Moonbeam  fled  and  hid  her  head, 

She  was  so  shy — so  shy. 

The  Sunbeam  wooed  with  passion; 

Ah,  he  was  a  lover  bold ! 
And  his  heart  was  afire  with  mad  desire 

For  the  Moonbeam  pale  and  cold. 

She  fled  like  a  dream  before  him, 

Her  hair  was  a  shining  sheen, 
And  oh,  that  Fate  would  annihilate 

The  space  that  lay  between ! 

Just  as  the  day  lay  panting 

In  the  arms  of  the  twilight  dim, 
The   Sunbeam  caught  the  one  he  sought 

And  drew  her  close  to  him. 

But  out  of  his  warm  arms,  startled 

And  stirred  by  Love's  first  shock, 
She  sprang  afraid,  like  a  trembling  maid, 

And  hid  in  the  niche  of  a  rock. 

And  the  Sunbeam  followed  and  found  her, 

And  led  her  to  Love's  own  feast ; 
And  they  were  wed  on  that  rocky  bed, 

And  the  dying  Day  was  their  priest. 

And  lo!  the  beautiful  Opal — 

That  rare  and  wondrous  gem — 
Where  the  moon  and  sun  blend  into  one, 

Is  the  child  that  was  born  to  them. 


59 


TOPAZ. 


Attention  was  first  called  to  the  topaz  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
following-  the  discovery  and  settlement  of  Brazil.  Early  in  the  nine- 
teenth, it  became  very  popular  and  continued  so  till  about  1870. 
After  that  it  was  little  valued  or  worn.  No  stone  has  been  more 
subject  to  fluctuations  of  fashion,  with  consequent  extreme  variation 
in  price.  At  present,  with  all  colored  stones,  its  price  is  constantly 
increasing,  perhaps  $8  a  karat  just  now,  but  doubling  or  trebling  if 
the  specimen  is  large  and  fine. 

The  best  topaz  is  from  Brazil,  usually  in  shades  of  golden  yel- 
low ;  less  frequently  yellowish  brown ;  often  mixed  yellow  and 
brown,  with  a  hint  of  red,  as  in  hyacinth ;  rarest  of  all  rose  and  ruby. 
Pink,  so  uncommon  in  nature,  is  easily  produced  artificially  from 
brownish-yellow  stones  by  slow  heat.  Of  these  the  darker  are  some- 
times called  "Brazilian  rubies,"  while  the  lighter  are  almost  exactly 
the  shade  of  Kunzite,  pale  rose  tinged  with  lilac.  A  happy  accident 
disclosed  to  a  French  jeweler  this  possibility  of  the  topaz. 

The  yellowish  brown  or  "Madeira"  color,  so-called  from  the 
wine,  is  most  desired  and  is  sold  readily,  the  yellow  being  left  much 
longer  on  the  jeweler's  hands.  This  hue,  like  that  of  the  Spanish 
"burnt"  topaz,  accords  well  with  red  hair. 

There  are  also  in  Brazil  perfectly  colorless  specimens,  white  as 
the  whitest  diamonds,  which  take  a  high  degree  of  polish,  as  does  all 
topaz,  and  are  called  by  the  Portuguese  pingos  d'agoa,  drops  of 
water.  At  first  glance,  on  snowy  cotton,  they  seem  as  beautiful  as 
diamonds,  except  for  the  lack  of  the  prismatic  play,  but  the  slightest 
moisture  dulls  them.  The  celebrated  "Braganza  diamond,"  1,680 
karats,  in  the  Portuguese  Royal  treasury,  has  been  pronounced  a 
white  topaz.  Some  of  these  pellucid  gems  are  found  in  sizes  which 
would  fill  a  water  decanter,  could  they  be  melted  and  poured  in, 
and  often  they  are  without  a  single  flaw.  In  Brazil  these  pingos 
d'agoa  are  sometimes  called  "slaves'  diamonds." 

They  should  not  be  worn  on  warm,  damp  flesh.  White  topaz  is 
found  as  worn  pebbles  along  streams  and  rivers  in  Minas  Geraes, 
Brazil,  where  are  diamonds  also,  but  the  most  abundant  are  yellow, 
sometimes  tinged,  often  in  spots,  with  brownish  red.  A  few  bluish 
and  greenish  crystals  have  been  found  in  Stoneham,  Me.,  and  at 
North  Chatham,  N.  H. 

Topaz  occurs  also  in  Siberia,  a  number  of  whose  specimens  are 
liable  to  change  by  exposure  to  sunlight.  Pale  blue  turns  to  pale 
vellow,  deep  yellow  to  dirty  white.  The  finest  topaz  crystals  in  the 
British  Museum  come  from  Siberia,  and  have  to  be  protected  from 

60 


light.  The  color  in  such  cases  is  due  to  organic  pigment.  As  far 
back  as  1737  topaz  of  a  greenish  tint  was  mined  in  Saxony,  the  only 
important  locality  in  Europe  producing  this  stone,  and  put  on  the 
market.  It  was  then  called  Schnecken  topaz,  from  Schneckenstein, 
where  it  was  found.  Decorations  in  the  Green  Vaults  at  Dresden 
bear  witness  to  the  beauty  of  some  of  its  stones. 

So  far  the  true  topaz  has  been  under  discussion,  8  in  hardness, 
3.6  in  specific  gravity  and  lustre  vitreous,  but  by  far  the  greater 
quantity  in  the  market  is  simply  metamorphosed  citrine,  or  pale 
yellow  quartz,  7  in  hardness,  2.65  in  specific  gravity.  Of  this,  the 
cairngorm,  or  smoky  quartz,  is  abundant  in  Scotland,  the  pale  yel- 
low in  Saxony,  the  sherry-colored  in  Spain.  Citrine  also  occurs 
abundantly  in  Brazil.  There  is  little  in  North  America.  Smoky 
quartz,  together  with  light  blue,  light  green,  white  and  salmon- 
colored  is  found  in  Colorado;  but  none  in  great  quantities.  A  re- 
markable deposit  disclosed  itself  in  1868  in  Switzerland,  Canton  Uri, 
near  the  Tiefen  glacier.  The  largest  of  its  large  specimens  is  now 
in  the  British  Museum.  Citrine  quartz,  in  its  natural  yellow  shades 
or  changed  to  orange  brown  by  heat,  is  always  passed  off  as  topaz, 
perhaps  with  qualifying  prefix  of  Indian,  Occidental,  Bohemian, 
Spanish.  There  is  the  true  Indian  topaz,  of  a  saffron  yellow  color,  in 
Ceylon  as  in  Brazil,  but  very  rare.  Spanish  topaz  is  citrine  of  a  deep 
brownish  yellow,  while  "golden"  is  sometimes  applied  to  citrine  as 
well  as  the  true  Brazilian,  though  the  latest  designation  for  such  in 
this  country  is  "sun."  It  is  confusing  to  the  amateur,  and  a  re- 
liable house  should  always  be  consulted  if  the  true  gem  is  desired; 
it  is  rarely  kept  elsewhere  than  at  places  of  the  rank  of  Tiffany. 
Considering  that  the  true  is  worth  ten  times  the  false,  which  falls 
to  the  level  of  amethyst,  rose  quartz,  rock  crystal,  it  is  well  to  be- 
come informed. 

The  average  jeweler  recognizes  as  topaz  only  the  yellow  stones 
in  their  various  shades  from  pale  to  reddish  brown,  but  the  blue,  or 
blue  tinged  with  green,  are  very  interesting.  Usually  it  is  a  pale 
shade,  but  a  darker  tint  is  found,  called  "Brazilian  sapphire,"  also 
applied  to  blue  tourmaline.  The  pale,  bluish  green  or  greenish  blue 
is  very  similar  to  aquamarine,  and  one  is  often  sold  for  the  other, 
but  topaz  is  heavier.  In  pure  methylene  iodide  topaz  sinks,  while 
aquamarine  floats.  As  yellow  tinged  with  red  or  brown  forms  the 
standard  color,  the  stones  most  likely  to  be  mistaken  for  topaz, 
besides  the  citrine  just  mentioned,  are  yellow  sapphire,  called  Orien- 
tal topaz,  yellow  zircon,  and  hyacinth  garnet,  or  essonite — the 
cinnamon-stone.  Because  of  the  long  familiarity  with  this  shade 
of  topaz,  reddish  brown,  almost  always  quartz,  and  produced  by  heat, 
it  may  be  said  to  be  the  popular  color.  Few  know  any  other,  except 
pale  or  golden  yellow,  which  may  be  the  true  topaz,  but  more  often 
is  citrine.  The  sale  of  blue  or  pink  is  so  infrequent  as  to  be  negligible. 

The  faults  of  the  topaz,  lowering  the  value  of  the  stone,  are 
impure  color,  fissures,  turbidity,  and  cavities,  either  empty  or  filled 
with  liquid.  In  burning,  topaz  must  be  heated  gradually,  else  it  will 
be  fissured.  There  are  several  methods,  but  the  best  is  to  pack  it  in 

61 


a  crucible,  with  powdered  charcoal,  ashes  or  sand,  then  slowly  heat 
and  slowly  cool. 

Topaz  is  not  artificially  produced  as  yet,  but  good  imitations 
are  made,  as  in  the  case  of  most  colored  stones,  called  doublets. 
They  are  composed  of  strass,  a  high  order  of  glass,  as  a  basis,  and 
are  always  of  inferior  hardness. 

While  there  is  no  true  "gem  color"  with  the  topaz,  the  reddish 
brown  being  as  pleasing  as  the  golden,  this  stone  may  be  helped  or 
hindered  by  its  cut.  Unless  very  large,  it  should  always  receive  the 
brilliant  form,  which  immensely  increases  its  lustre  and  beauty. 
The  topaz  used  to  be  step  cut,  but  in  the  United  States  almost  all 
good  specimens  are  now  cut  brilliant,  which  enhances  the  charm  of 
most  transparent  stones,  except  possibly  the  emerald. 

Forty  years  ago,  in  the  zenith  of  its  popularity,  the  cost  of  topaz 
was  about  the  same  as  at  present,  but  between  then  and  now  it  de- 
clined to  less  than  half. 

Topaz  is,  and  has  been  through  all  ages,  and  with  all  nations, 
since  its  discovery  four  centuries  ago,  the  birthstone  for  November. 
It  is  also  the  talismanic  gem  of  April's  guardian  angel.  Though 
not  known  till  the  sixteenth  century,  it  was  met  by  the  general  be- 
lief, on  the  verge  of  decline,  in  the  esoteric  power  of  gems,  and  was 
immediately  dedicated  to  the  cause  of  friendship,  fidelity  and  fruit- 
fulness.  It  proved  a  favorite  stone  with  the  married  and,  held  in  the 
hand  of  a  woman  in  childbirth,  was  said  to  lessen  suffering. 


62 


TOURMALINE. 


Little  Dutch  children,  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, playing  with  a  pretty  crystal  under  the  torrid  sun  of  Ceylon, 
which  was  than  a  dependency  of  Holland,  noticed  that  it  attracted 
light  bodies,  straw,  paper,  ashes,  at  one  end  while  repelling  them 
at  the  other.  It  was  soon  exhibited  in  Europe  as  a  curiosity,  and  was 
considered  a  sort  of  magnet.  For  fifty  years  further  it  appears  to 
have  been  little  known,  as  Linnaeus,  the  first  to  attribute  its  attract- 
ive powers  when  heated  to  electricity,  had  never  seen  one.  In  1740 
a  specimen  was  worth  ten  Dutch  florins,  and  it  was  finally  christened 
tourmaline,  a  corruption  of  its  Cingalese  appellation. 

Tourmaline  is  now  found  not  only  in  Ceylon,  but  Burmah,  the 
Ural  Mountains,  Brazil,  besides  Maine,  Massachusetts  and  Cali- 
fornia. Its  colors  are  often  beautiful,  and  the  gems  of  good  size. 
Red  tourmaline,  called  rubellite,  and  strikingly  like  the  ruby,  is  the 
most  valuable.  In  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  there 
is  a  superb  example  of  rubellite,  cut  brilliant  and  weighing  11  7/32 
karats,  from  Madagascar.  Red  are  found  in  Burmah,  Maine  and 
California.  The  Californian,  in  San  Diego  County,  while  abundant, 
is  said  not  to  be  as  good  quality  as  the  Maine.  Mount  Mica  at  Paris, 
Maine,  and  Mount  Apatite  at  Auburn,  give  forth  abundantly  the 
finest  tourmalines  in  the  world,  of  all  colors  save  brown.  Dark  and 
yellowish-brown  abound  not  only  in  Ceylon,  but  two  or  three 
hundred  miles  southeast  of  the  Vale  of  Cashmere,  in  the  Himalayas, 
where  green  is  also  abundant,  but  the  crystals  are  small.  Beauti- 
ful green  in  all  shades,  light,  dark,  olive,  grass,  comes  from  Maine, 
California,  and  particularly  Brazil,  where  there  is  little  of  the  red 
but  abundance  of  green,  the  most  widely  distributed  on  earth  and 
the  cheapest.  Usually  the  green  is  yellowish  or  bluish,  generally  very 
deep  in  color,  sometimes  almost  black,  yet  there  is  one  shade  almost 
exactly  like  the  green  garnet,  and  when  perfect,  except  for  the 
adamantine  colors,  it  is  practically  as  brilliant.  Emerald  green  is 
rare,  but  when  found  is  as  beautiful  as  real  emerald,  and  called 
"Brazilian  emerald."  This  is  emblematic  of  the  priesthood  in  Brazil, 
and  is  much  worn  by  priests  in  rings. 

In  Ceylon  tourmaline  of  yellowish  green  occurs  in  abundance. 
It  is  similar  to  peridot,  and  is  known  as  Cingalese  chrysolite.  The 
green  in  Ceylon  is  less  deeply  tinted  than  the  Brazilian. 

Blue  tourmaline  (indicolite)  is  rare.  It  may  be  light  or  dark, 
pure  indigo  or  tinged  with  green,  as  are  specimens  in  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History.  In  Brazil  the  blue  are  known  as  "Brazil- 
ian sapphires."  A  few  good  crystals  have  been  found  at  Paris, 
Me.,  and  at  Goshen,  near  Chesterfield,  Massachusetts.  The  discovery 

63 


at  Mt.  Mica,  bringing  in  during  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury something  like  $50,000,  was  most  important.  The  Mt.  Apatite 
deposits  revealed  themselves  in  1882.  In  the  twenty  years  follow- 
ing fifteen  thousand  crystals  were  taken  out.  Cut  gems  from  these 
ranged  in  weight  from  six  to  eight  karats.  The  red  crystals  at  Paris 
and  Goshen,  were  found  surrounded  by  dark  green  tourmaline. 
People  will  remember  the  story  by  H.  H.  (Helen  Hunt  Jackson), 
who  lived  in  Chesterfield  during  the  discovery  of  crystals  there,  and 
wove  about  one  of  them  the  charming  fancy  found  in  "My  Tourma- 
line." 

Tourmaline  is  a  very  complex  substance.  It  contains  fourteen 
elements,  though  none  have  all.  Silica  and  alumina  in  about  equal 
proportions  form  three-fourths  of  the  whole.  All  tourmaline  is 
strongly  dichroic,  except  rubellite.  Consequently,  to  obtain  the 
best  results,  a  crystal  must  be  cut  most  carefully  in  a  certain  direc- 
tion. Tourmaline  more  than  any  other  stone  needs  a  skillful  lapi- 
dary. No  precious  stone,  except  perhaps  topaz,  resembles  tourmaline 
in  its  electric  features,  so  that  alone  would  easily  distinguish  rubel- 
lite from  spinel,  garnet  or  ruby.  This  variety  runs  from  pale  rose  to 
rich  ruby  red.  The  color  of  tourmaline  is  not  due  to  mechanical  in- 
termixture of  pigment,  but  is  the  property  of  each  substance  itself. 
Crystals,  hexagonal  in  shape,  often  have  different  colors  at  either 
end,  as  pink  and  green. 

In  addition  to  all  the  colors  mentioned,  there  is  also  black  tour- 
maline (shorl)  and  white  (achroite). 

Besides  being  used  in  jewelry,  cut  in  slices  tourmaline  is  most 
useful  for  analyzing  the  polarization  of  light. 

Tourmaline  is  almost  as  hard  as  emerald,  7  to  7.8,  and  much 
heavier,  and  its  lustre  is  also  vitreous.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  take 
seriously  stones  which  in  a  tray  look  like  nothing  so  much  as  Huy- 
ler's  "clear  squares." 

The  green  tourmaline  is  the  birthstone  for  May,  in  Kunz's 
American  list,  as  is  the  rubellite  for  December. 

Tourmaline  is  not  expensive  now,  so  frequently  is  it  found,  but 
in  1859  Dr.  Feuchtwanger,  the  eminent  mineralogist  whose  treatise 
was  published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  valued  his  specimen  of  rubel- 
lite and  green  tourmaline  as  high  as  any  gem.  He  laments  that  rubel- 
lite from  Paris,  Maine,  is  becoming  very  scarce  and  wants  attention 
paid  to  obtaining  a  new  supply.  A  siberite,  the  fine  red  Siberian 
variety,  of  five  lines,  less  than  half  an  inch,  he  quotes  as  worth  $150, 
and  one  of  four  by  twelve  lines,  an  inch  long  by  a  third  wide,  $1,200. 

Think  of  that,  in  these  days  when  tourmaline  rarely  costs  more 
than  ten  dollars  a  karat ;  and  emerald,  which  he  rates  as  low  as  $12, 
is  now,  of  good  color  and  quality,  cheap  at  $300! 


64 


ZIRCON. 


All  jewelers  are  familiar  with  the  precious  stones,  also  some  of 
the  semi-precious,  but  very  few  know  the  zircon.  Yet  this  stone, 
found  exclusively  in  Ceylon,  at  least  in  its  "noble"  form,  is  in  color 
and  lustre  the  height  of  beauty.  The  zircon  is  not  appreciated  as  it 
should  be.  Nothing  is,  in  fact,  except  by  the  few,  till  Fashion  sets 
upon  it  her  important  seal. 

Zircon,  the  true  hyacinth,  is  considered  by  some  mineralogists 
a  modern  stone,  but  King's  arguments  in  defense  of  its  ancient  origin 
are  very  strong.  Though  his  specialty  was  more  particularly  carved 
gems,  King's  instinct  was  wonderfully  correct,  and  reinforced  by 
profound  scholarship.  He  is  one  of  the  few  authorities  in  the  his- 
tory of  stones,  separating  the  ancient  from  the  modern,  their  ma- 
terial as  well  as  intagli,  whom  we  can  trust. 

Recent  scientific  investigators,  as  well  as  the  archaeologist 
Westropp  in  the  latter  part  of  the  past  century,  have  pronounced  all 
engraved  hyacinths  found  in  collections  merely  hyacinthine  garnets. 
They  insist  that  no  zircon  intagli,  proving  its  existence  with  the 
ancients,  have  come  down  to  us  from  olden  times.  They  reckon  the 
zircon  from  1789,  which,  however,  is  the  date  of  the  discovery  of 
the  oxide,  not  the  gem.  In  that  year,  Klaproth,  the  German  natural- 
ist, produced  oxide  of  zirconia  from  the  earth  zirconium,  and  identi- 
fied it  with  hyacinth.  What  better  proof  than  this  that  the  gem  hya- 
cinth was  already  in  existence,  even  well  known,  at  that  time  ? 

King  claims  that,  contrary  to  the  prevailing  opinion,  many  in- 
tagli, particularly  those  by  the  Greeks,  with  whom  the  stone  was 
a  favorite  medium,  have  survived  to  tell  the  tale.  He  goes  back  to 
Theophrastus,  the  pupil  of  Aristotle,  writing  400  B.  C,  to  find  the 
first  mention  of  zircon  which  he  considers  accurate.  It  was  then 
called  lyncurium,  had  a  fabled  origin,  was  compared  to  amber,  in 
color  and  electric  properties ;  but  pronounced  hard,  like  a  real  stone, 
and  cold  to  the  touch,  which  it  is,  and  amber  is  not.  Several  writers 
after  Theophrastus,  Solinus,  Epiphanius,  Isidorus,  seem  to  recognize 
the  individuality  of  this  stone,  yet  grow  more  or  less  confused  about 
it,  upset  probably  by  Pliny's  fretful  impatience  with  the  accepted 
notion  of  its  origin,  that  it  was  the  congealed  excreta  of  the  wolf, 
hence  lyncurium,  a  name  sometimes  applied  to  yellow  amber,  some- 
times to  yellow  zircon. 

Its  home,  like  the  sapphire,  was  Ceylon ;  it  fell  under  the  classi- 
fication of  Hyacinthus,  or  yellow  sapphire.  During  the  Dark  Ages, 
when  art  sunk  low,  the  importation  of  gems  ceased,  and  all  in  ex- 
istence were  judged  solely  by  color.  Engraving  did  for  the  an- 

65 


cients,  in  a  crude  way,  what  fine  instruments  do  now ;  determined  the 
degree  of  hardness,  for  one  thing.  But  the  art  of  engraving,  so  high 
in  the  Greek  period,  of  a  lesser  excellence  in  the  days  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  declined  steadily  from  the  end  of  the  Augustan  period,  and 
with  the  supremacy  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals  expired. 

The  zircon  has  two  very  remarkable  characteristics :  its  lustre  is 
adamantine,  like  the  diamond;  and  it  is  the  heaviest  of  all  gems; 
heavier  indeed  than  any  mineral  not  containing  silver,  copper,  or 
lead.  Its  specific  gravity  is  4.1  to  4.9,  and  when  placed  in  the  densest 
liquid,  where  diamond  floats,  it  quickly  sinks.  Yet  while  of  a  bril- 
liant lustre,  vitreous  to  adamantine,  more  strongly  refractive  than 
any  gem  save  diamond,  and  of  great  weight  and  beauty,  its  hardness 
is  only  that  of  garnet,  7.5.  In  color,  too,  it  follows  the  garnet  family, 
having  similar  hues,  if  not  quite  the  same. 

The  zircon  is  of  many  colors:  wood  or  dead  leaf  brown,  light 
and  dark  olive  green;  colorless  and  very  pale  yellow,  like  yellow- 
ish diamond,  with  some  prismatic  play;  golden  and  rich  deep  yel- 
low, the  latter  by  some  jewelers  called  jacinth;  though  that  term, 
etymologically,  is  merely  a  corruption  of  hyacinth.  The  colorless, 
pale  yellow  and  smoke-tinged  stones  are  called  jargoons,  at  least  in 
Ceylon,  and  when  clarified  by  heat  are  sometimes  sold  as  diamonds 
in  the  Orient,  where  the  poorly  polished  are  so  well  liked  that  the 
deception  is  possible.  Here,  even  with  the  perfect  brilliant  cut,  the 
play  of  color  is  so  faint,  the  movement  so  slow,  that  one  far  from 
an  expert  could  tell  the  difference. 

The  brownish  red,  prized  above  all,  is  the  hyacinth  of  mineral- 
ogists, more  and  more  sought  for  as  intelligence  increases,  and  com- 
manding its  price.  Suffused  with  the  tropic  hue  of  terra  cotta,  the 
zircon  hyacinth  seems  a  reflection  of  earth's  internal  fires.  Yet 
though  this  is  considered  the  "gem"  color,  the  yellow  stones  are 
perhaps  more  beautiful,  when  of  a  fine  deep  shade.  Whatever  the 
zircon  may  be,  always  its  hard,  brilliant,  admantine  lustre  enlivens 
the  color. 

Particularly  beside  its  gorgeous  yellow  does  the  same  in  beryl, 
topaz,  even  sapphire,  far  harder  minerals,  look  dull. 

Clear,  transparent  zircon  of  good  tint  and  size  is  scarce.  Yet 
for  some  reason,  it  is  not  expensive.  It  can  be  bought  for  about 
$4  per  karat ;  lovely  transparent  gems.  Only  extraordinary  size, 
or  great  desirability,  augment  this  figure.  Surely  it  is  bargain  day 
in  zircon.  But  it  is  seldom  met  with  in  this  country  except  at  Tif- 
fany's, where  it  is  cut  from  the  rough  or  recut  from  the  Cingalese 
original,  always  for  weight  rather  than  brilliance.  Skillful  American 
work  immensely  enhances  its  adamantine  lustre,  and  transforms  a 
pretty  stone  into  a  wonderful  jewel.  Little  tray  at  Tiffany's,  voic- 
ing the  color  of  almost  every  gem,  yet  costing  so  little,  what  infinite 
pleasure  do  you  give ! 

King  says:  "A  perfect  jacinth  is  indeed  a  splendid  ornament, 
and  much  superior  to  the  best  Brazilian  topaz,  as  having  golden 
lustre  mixed  with  its  rich  orange.  However,  it  is  now  completely  out 
of  fashion,  and  consequently  of  but  little  value,  such  are  the  un- 

66 


reasoning  mutations  of  taste  in  these  matters."  And  that  was  fifty 
years  ago! 

Seldom  called  for,  and  its  beauty  unacknowledged  when  falling 
one's  way,  it  yet  is  of  far  less  common  occurrence  than  the  ruby 
or  sapphire,  with  which  it  was  so  long  associated,  and  in  whose 
company  it  is  still  found  among  the  river  gravels  of  Ceylon. 

Where  are  the  mother  rocks  of  these  wonderful  Cingalese  peb- 
bles, broken  from  their  moorings  and  worn  smooth  by  the  action  of 
the  swift,  sudden,  tropical  streams  which  have  carried  them  far? 
Ceylon  is  a  small  country,  open  in  every  part  to  the  traveler.  Has 
the  original  mountain  been  swallowed  up  in  some  volcanic  convul- 
sion, or  have  the  ancient  mines,  like  those  of  chrysolite  in  the  Red 
Sea,  emerald  in  Egypt,  diamond  in  India,  turquoise  in  New  Mexico, 
been  neglected,  over  run  with  armies  or  vegetation,  and  finally  for- 
gotten ? 

The  hyacinth  variety  of  zircon,  or  the  deep  yellow  jacinth,  is 
the  guardian  angel's  talismanic  gem  for  September. 


GARNET. 


The  garnet  has  been  known  from  earliest  times,  and  has  always 
been  exceedingly  popular.  Once  it  commanded  a  high  price,  and 
was  frequently,  as  well  as  spinel,  confounded  with  ruby.  "Stones 
of  the  same  color,"  explains  King,  "were  promiscuously  classed 
under  one  head  by  the  ignorance  of  the  Middle  Ages  (unacquainted 
with  even  the  ancient  test  of  hardness)  whence  has  arisen  that 
strange  interchange  of  names  between  ancient  and  modern  precious 
stones  so  perplexing  to  every  mineralogist." 

"Garnet,"  according  to  the  best  authorities,  is  derived  from 
pomegranate,  because  of  the  resemblance  of  its  color  to  the  jelly-like 
juice  surrounding  the  seeds  of  that  fruit.  This  is  quite  as  applicable 
to  the  ruby,  which  was  also  included  with  the  "Granatica,"  and  the 
spinel.  At  an  earlier  date,  they  were  all  grouped  under  the  general 
head  of  carbunculus,  from  carbo,  a  coal,  because  of  their  supposed  re- 
semblance to  burning  coal.  The  modern  carbuncle,  which  is  never  a 
specific  gem,  but  always  a  garnet  cut  convex,  exemplifies  this  idea  to 
a  marked  degree,  particularly  when  placed  in  the  direct  rays  of  the 
sun.  Usually,  such  a  stone  is  cut  en  cabochon,  hollowed  out — 
though  as  garnet  is  brittle,  it  is  safer  to  have  the  flat  bottom — and 
set  against  a  background  of  convex  gold.  This  was  a  favorite  treat- 
ment for  centuries,  and  is  considered  artistic  at  the  present  time. 
Wily  Asiatics  often  place  colored  foil  at  the  back  to  improve  a  tint, 
and  deceive  the  purchaser.  It  is  not  safe  to  buy  in  the  Orient  any 
jewel  set  with  closed  back  unless  the  dealer  is  known  as  reliable. 

"En  cabochon"  is  the  French  expression  for  the  convex,  pol- 
ished but  uncut.  While  carbuncle  usually  means  garnet  mounted  in 
this  manner,  the  term  is  applied  to  any  stone  so  cut;  which  is  best 
for  all  dark  or  badly  flawed  specimens,  throwing  light  into  their 
depths,  making  them  sometimes  more  brilliant  by  night  than  day. 

The  garnet  family  is  divided  into  six  or  more  sub-species,  which 
pass  into  each  other  by  almost  imperceptible  gradations.  They  are 
all  silicates  of  different  protoxides  or  peroxide,  combined  with  alum- 
ina, the  variations  causing  the  difference  in  hardness  and  color,  as : 
the  alumina-lime  garnet,  of  which  the  essonite  is  an  example ;  alum- 
ina-magnesia garnet,  otherwise  the  Bohemian  pyrope;  alumina-iron 
garnet,  as  the  almandine ;  alumina-manganese  garnet,  the  spessartite, 
from  Amelia  Court  House,  Virginia ;  iron-lime  garnet,  the  black  and 
a  variety  of  the  common  kind;  lime-chrome  garnet,  the  emerald- 
green  ouvarovite  of  Siberia. 

Garnets  are  easily  melted  by  the  blowpipe  and  some  varieties, 
as  the  black  garnet  or  melanite,  found  in  the  lavas  of  Vesuvius,  seem 

68 


to  be  the  direct  result  of  fusion  of  their  ingredients.  They  are  often 
mistaken  for  iron  ore,  and  condemned  as  such,  though  useful  in 
the  manufacture  of  iron,  when  understood.  Such  garnet  is  found 
in  the  Highlands  on  the  west  side  of  the  Hudson  River. 

In  recent  years,  other  variations  of  this  large  family,  even 
more  interesting,  have  been  discovered.  The  grossularite  or  goose- 
berry stone,  a  pale  yellowish  green,  is  seldom  found  in  crystals  fit 
for  jewelry  nor  is  the  ouvarovite,  the  hardest  of  all  garnets.  But 
the  demantoid,  from  the  Urals,  so-called  because  of  its  diamond- 
like  lustre,  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  its  hardness  (for  it  is  the 
softest  of  all,  only  6.5  in  the  scale,  as  against  7.5),  is  perhaps  the 
most  beautiful,  when  at  its  best,  of  all.  Its  soft,  brilliant,  exquisite 
green,  trembling  with  loveliness  and  life,  from  which  intermittent 
red  rays  flash  out  curiously,  is  far  more  enchanting  than  that  of  the 
emerald  in  a  specimen  clear  and  of  some  size.  But  a  karat  stone  of 
perfect  color  and  without  marked  flaws  is  extremely  rare  and  costly. 
The  many  small  ones,  ranging  from  quarter  of  a  karat  to  the  most 
minute,  formerly  were  sold  by  jewelers  as  "commercial  olivines," 
which  they  strongly  resemble,  when  of  a  light  shade.  But  no  olivine 
can  compare  with  a  "gem"  demantoid  of  size,  and  especially  when 
set  in  an  artistic  manner.  One  such,  crowning  a  ring  of  rich  Roman 
gold,  with  pale  pink  tourmalines  down  the  shank,  was  exhibited  by 
Tiffany  in  the  Paris  exhibition  of  1900,  as  the  work  of  a  distin- 
guished artist,  and  priced  at  $125. 

Particularly  interesting  to  Americans,  because  discovered  by 
W.  E.  Hidden  and  J.  H.  Pratt  in  1898,  at  Cowie  Creek  and  Mason's 
Branch,  North  Carolina,  is  the  rhodolite.  Intermediate  in  character 
between  the  almandine  and  pyrope,  one  molecule  of  the  former  to 
two  of  the  latter,  it  yet  has  a  character  of  its  own.  The  best  color 
is  rose  pink,  seldom  inclining  to  purple,  like  the  almandine,  which 
jewelers  often  sell  as  rhodolite,  seemingly  unaware  of  the  pure  rose 
tint,  whence  its  name,  from  the  Greek  roden,  a  rose.  It  is  without 
that  central  profundity  which  makes  most  garnets  so  dark  by  arti- 
ficial light,  though  this  disadvantage  in  fine  specimens  is  more  and 
more  overcome  by  the  "spread"  cut,  giving  to  a  clear  garnet  of  rich 
color  a  superior  beauty  to  all  red  stones  save  the  rarest  rubies. 
The  peculiar  rose  tint  of  the  rhodolite,  first,  last  and  forever  pink 
rather  than  purple,  combined  with  transparence  and  brilliance,  ren- 
ders it  even  more  striking  by  night  than  by  day,  its  lustre  being  com- 
parable to  the  demantoid.  This,  together  with  its  freedom  from 
flaws,  makes  it  a  striking  and  beautiful  gem. 

But  it  is  very  scarce,  the  first  abundance  having  ceased.  Rho- 
dolite is  not  yet  mined  extensively  enough  to  stand  on  its  own  merits, 
but  when  that  desirable  hour  comes  all  the  world  will  be  cognizant 
of  a  wonderful  gem  now  known  only  to  the  few.  Mr.  Hidden  may 
be  said  to  be  the  father  of  the  rhodolite,  for  it  was  when  mining 
in  a  desultory  way  for  the  stone  which  now  bears  his  name  that  he 
came  across  this  entirely  new  variety  of  garnet,  sometimes  among  the 
inclusions  of  true  pigeon's  blood  rubies.  What  might  not  happen 
if  the  mineral  riches  of  North  Carolina  were  systematically  worked, 

69 


instead  of  merely  tapped  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  comparatively 
moneyless  scientist? 

Rhodolite  must  not  be  confounded  with  rhodonite,  an  entirely 
different  substance,  5.5  in  hardness. 

The  most  costly,  when  garnets  were  more  rare  than  now,  with 
some  of  the  loveliest  varieties  undiscovered,  was  almandine.  It  is 
almost  ruby  red,  with  violet  in  its  depths,  the  violet  shining  through 
the  crimson  sometimes  so  pronounced  that  anciently  it  was  classed 
among  the  amethysts.  It  is  the  hardest  of  all  garnets,  except  the 
infrequent  ouvarovite,  and  the  heaviest,  7.25  and  4.3  respectively. 

The  blood-red  or  pyrope  garnet  is  found  mostly  in  Bohemia. 
Usually  the  stones  are  small  and  rose  cut,  mounted  en  pave,  that  is 
with  a  flat  base,  set  directly  upon  the  gold — almost  always  the  low 
grade  of  6  karats.  If  larger  stones  are  mingled  with  them,  perhaps 
in  flower  designs,  they  are  cut  en  cabochon.  Pyrope  is  the  Greek 
word  for  fire,  though  this  garnet  more  resembles  the  color  of  Bur- 
gundy wine.  Almandine  is  also  found  in  Bohemia,  near  Kollin.  But 
the  occurrence  of  garnet  in  all  Europe  is  unimiportant.  The  ancient 
almandine  was  almost  exclusively  Oriental,  from  India  and  Ceylon. 

Guarnaccino,  the  name  for  a  favorite  with  the  Italians,  is  said 
to  be  of  a  color  midway  between  the  jacinth  and  the  garnet,  combin- 
ing the  orange  of  the  one  with  the  red  of  the  other.  It  is  from  the 
word  vernaccia,  meaning  red  wine.  "A  splendid  stone,  of  great 
lustre,"  says  King,  "and  when  of  the  first  quality  can  with  diffi- 
culty be  distinguished  from  the  browner  tinted  spinels." 

One  begins  to  wonder,  amidst  this  bewilderment  of  colors,  if 
the  guarnaccino,  the  hyacinth  and  the  vermeille  are  not  different 
tints  of  the  essonite,  known  best  by  the  cinnamon-stone  of  to-day. 
The  hyacinth  certainly  is  an  essonite,  sometimes  yellowish-red,  as 
in  Ceylon,  sometimes  orange  from  Lower  California  or  reddish 
brown,  resembling  the  flawed  spessartite  in  color,  only  a  thousand 
times  more  beautiful. 

Garnet  is  found  in  Australia,  where  it  was  first  supposed  to  be 
ruby.  Like  the  "Cape  rubies"  in  South  Africa,  which  went  through 
a  similar  experience,  these  Australian  stones  are  called  "Adelaide 
rubies,"  and  are  considerably  valued  in  the  Orient  and  Russia,  more 
so  than  in  America,  where  equally  fine  garnets  are  not  uncommon. 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico  produce  many,  locally  termed  rubies,  with 
the  prefix  of  the  two  States,  which  both  by  night  and  day  are 
exceedingly  brilliant,  superior  to  the  "Cape  rubies,"  and  often  more 
beautiful  than  many  of  the  true  rubies  of  Burmah.  In  Montana, 
where  in  company  with  sapphire  ruby  was  so  confidently  expected, 
beautiful  red  garnets  seem  for  the  most  part  to  have  taken  its  place 
and  borrowed  its  name.  "Montana  rubies"  may  be  the  real  thing, 
but  sometimes  they  are  not. 

The  lustre  of  the  garnet  is  vitreous,  and  it  is  easily  chipped. 
Intagli  upon  it  are  not  very  common,  the  ancients  valuing  it  more  for 
its  color.  Besides,  its  brittleness  under  engraving  endangered  the 
stone. 

70 


Garnet  has  been  through  all  ages  the  birthstone  for  January, 
and  in  carbuncle  form  it  is  the  talismanic  gem  of  the  guardian  angel 
for  May,  while  jacinths  or  hyacinths  perform  the  latter  office  for 
September. 

The  garnet  in  olden  times  was  the  emblem  of  constancy,  gave 
and  preserved  health,  reconciled  differences  between  friends,  pro- 
tected from  perils  by  land  and  sea,  kept  off  plague  and  thunder.  It 
also  brought  grace,  dignity  and  victory  to  the  wearer.  It  was  en- 
dowed with  every  peculiarity  pertaining  to  the  ruby,  turning  dark 
when  danger  approached,  and  resuming  its  original  brilliancy  when 
the  danger  was  past. 

Even  in  these  days  it  is  considered  a  great  help  towards  suc- 
cess, also  a  valuable  protection  against  the  accidents  of  travel. 
Every  tourist  should  wear  a  garnet ! 


HYACINTH. 


Three  various  kinds  the  skilled  as  Hyacinth  name, 
Varying  in  color  and  unlike  in  fame: 
One,  like  pomegranate,  flowers  a  fiery  blaze, 
And  one  the  yellow  citron's  hue  displays; 
One  charms  with  paley  blue  the  gazer's  eye, 
Like  the  mild  tint  that  decks  the  northern  sky : 
A  strengthening  mind  the  several  kinds  convey, 
And  grief  and  vain  suspicion  drive  away. 

If  I  could  earlier  have  come  across  these  lines  of  Marbodus,  it 
would  have  saved  me  a  long  confusion.  They  embrace  a  fact  of  the 
first  importance :  namely,  that  hyacinthus  during  Roman  times  cov- 
ered the  whole  family  of  corundum;  rubinus  hyacinthus,  red  hya- 
cinth, or  ruby;  sapphirus  hyacinthus,  blue  hyacinth  or  sapphire; 
and  a  yellow  variety,  citrinus  hyacinthus.  As  the  art  of  gem  engrav- 
ing declined,  the  ruby  and  sapphire  became  known  by  their  adjectival 
terms,  while  hyacinthus,  loosely  applied  to  all  the  yellow  stones 
then  in  existence,  wandered  on.  To  run  this  down  it  was  necessary 
to  fly  from  a  casual  reference  to  cyclopedia,  to  history,  to  mythology, 
to  poetry — with  a  final  corroborative  appeal  to  Tiffany ! 

How  hyacinthus  could  mean  both  blue  and  yellow,  suddenly 
became  crystal  clear.  Also  how  the  zircon,  Theophrastus'  lyncurium, 
or  ligurian,  the  ligure  of  the  High  Priest's  Breastplate,  disappeared 
from  among  gems.  That  so  wonderful  a  stone,  indubitably  Oriental, 
could  have  hidden  itself  completely  was  a  mystery.  Or  that,  ex- 
clusively from  Ceylon,  whence  gems  have  come  as  long  as  gems 
have  been  known,  it  should  not  have  been  discovered  till  1789. 

An  interesting  side  issue  of  the  flower  which  sprung  from  the 
youth  Hyacinth's  blood,  as  told  in  the  chapter  on  Sapphire,  con- 
cerned the  word  Tyrian.  Evidently,  like  myself,  more  than  one 
searcher  for  light  judged  the  color  of  the  blossom,  born  in  blood, 
to  be  of  a  similar  hue.  But  blood  drying  where  it  falls  is  not  the 
crimson  of  the  fresh  arterial  flow ;  it  is  brown  tinged  with  red — in- 
deed much  like  the  gem  hyacinth  to-day.  The  reference  to  Tyrian 
dye  as  the  hue  of  the  flower  upset  all  calculations  till  I  discovered 
that  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  examining  a  substance  in  the  Baths  of 
Titus,  which  in  its  interior  had  a  lustre  approaching  carmine,  con- 
sidered it  a  specimen  of  the  best  Tyrian  purple ! 

Thus,  "her  hair  in  hyacinthine  flow/'  otherwise  auburn,  be- 
came probable,  and  we  all  were  happy,  especially  those  who  believed 
the  flower  was  the  tiger-lily,  surely  the  same  general  color  as  the 
gem.  The  believers  in  the  fleur-de-lys,  as  it  turned  out,  were  to  have 
their  innings  later,  through  "the  purple  sheen  of  the  raven's  wing." 
In  the  end  we  all  found  ourselves  right  in  one  way  or  another.  With 

72 


a  stone  like  the  sapphire,  running  the  whole  gamut  of  color,  all 
things  are  possible. 

The  awakening  interest  in  the  hyacinth  and  the  difficulty  of 
knowing  it  when  seen  is  not  confined  to  the  amateur.  Jewelers  are 
as  apt  to  be  mistaken  about  it  as  the  least  of  their  customers. 
Mineralogists  alone  recognize  its  distinguishing  features,  and  even 
they  are  but  little  acquainted  with  its  history. 

It  took  me,  studying  alone,  many  weeks,  if  not  months,  to 
understand  one  simple  thing:  that  the  hyacinth,  when  not  a  flower, 
is  a  color — rather  than  a  distinct  precious  stone.  A  certain  shade 
of  the  garnet  as  well  as  the  zircon,  and  nothing  else,  is  a  hyacinth  as 
now  known  to  the  world. 

It  was  finding  things  for  oneself,  learning  at  first  hand,  an  in- 
struction like  no  other ;  the  first  perception  of  truth  to  one  who  has 
taken  everything  for  granted. 

The  French  "hyacinthe"  comes  from  the  Italian  "jacinto," 
formed  according  to  the  usual  rule  from  the  Latin  hyacinthus,  in  its 
turn  from  the  "jacut"  of  the  Orient,  maybe.  Dropped  from  the 
sapphire  and  ruby,  "hyacinthus"  clung  to  many  stones  of  superior 
hardness  till  rescued  by  mineralogists  for  the  zircon  and  garnet 
families  alone. 

The  zircon  gives  what  the  mineralogists  call  the  true  hyacinth, 
in  distinction  from  the  essonite  garnet,  largely  sold  as  such.  They 
are  of  a  common  hardness,  about  7.5,  the  essonite  a  trifle  softer,  but 
the  zircon  is  a  clean  terra-cotta,  and  of  far  more  brilliant  lustre.  To 
whichever  of  these  two  the  hyacinth  may  belong,  its  yellow  must 
border  on  orange,  its  red  on  brown.  In  the  zircon  this  is  very 
marked,  but  the  garnet  varies  in  its  tints :  the  cinnamon-stone  is  red- 
dish brown,  almost  the  color  of  certain  topazes;  the  spessartite  a 
dull  shade  of  cinnamon,  and  full  of  impurities;  the  Cingalese  es- 
sonite, also  much  flawed  and  generally  turbid,  is  yellowish  red; 
while  in  Lower  California,  there  is  found  an  orange,  sometimes  faint- 
ly red  at  its  base,  which  is  the  most  seductive  of  all.  It  is  strongly 
akin  in  color  to  beautiful  red  hair. 

Some  have  called  the  zircon  of  a  fine  imperial  yellow,  often  with 
a  tawny  tinge  in  its  rich  depths,  jacinth;  reserving  hyacinth  for 
the  brownish  red  variety;  but  the  terms  are  usually  synonymous. 

The  resemblance  between  Spanish  topaz,  or  burnt  citrine,  and 
hyacinth  is  very  strong.  Some  of  these  products  are  as  red  as  the 
Cingalese  essonite,  others  much  like  the  cinnamon-stone,  only  far 
more  clear  and  brilliant.  It  is  just  because  of  this  clarity,  in  fact, 
that  one  can  easily  decide  between  them.  Then  the  pseudo-topaz, 
being  quartz,  is  softer  than  garnet. 

The  hyacinth  seems  peculiarly  autumn's  stone,  in  harmony  with 
turning  foliage.  A  northern  forest  early  in  October  manifests  the 
composite  beauty,  the  Oriental  moderation,  of  its  rich  tones.  Set 
between  brown  diamonds,  the  browner  and  "dirtier"  the  better,  it 
forms  a  color  composition  altogether  enchanting. 

Nowadays  the  hyacinth  is  nobody's  birthstone,  though  in  the 
seventh  century,  and  later  by  the  Russians  and  Italians,  it  was  used 

73 


for  January,  but  it  is  not  without  its  niche,  under  the  name  of  ja- 
cinth, as  the  talismanic  gem  for  September. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  hyacinth  was  supposed  to  have  the  power 
of  procuring  sleep,  riches,  honor,  and  wisdom.  Also  it  drove  away 
plague  and  evil  spirits.  Cardanus,  writing  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
said  he  was  accustomed  to  carry  a  hyacinth  about  with  him  for  the 
purpose  of  inducing  sleep,  which  "it  did  seem  somewhat  to  con- 
fer, but  not  much." 


74 


PERIDOT. 


As  the  green  garnet  beside  the  emerald  shows  a  yellowish  cast 
of  green,  so  the  peridot  beside  the  green  garnet  carries  the  tone  to  a 
point  where  green  so  mingles  with  yellow  that  you  hardly  know 
whether  you  are  looking  at  yellowish  green  or  greenish  yellow. 
There  are  peridots  from  Egypt  of  a  dark  olive  green,  rich  in  color 
and  large  in  size,  but  the  majority  come  from  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona,  small  and  brilliant  when  diamond  cut,  of  an  ethereal  tint 
very  lovely  in  company  with  other  stones  or  richly  wrought  gold, 
but  scarcely  strong  enough  to  stand  alone.  These  the  jewelers  call 
chartreuse  green. 

The  peridot,  olivine,  chrysolite — for  they  are  identical  in  com- 
position— is  a  soft  stone,  less  than  quartz  in  hardness.  A  careful 
lady  might  wear  one  in  a  ring  and  keep  it  in  good  condition  a  long 
time,  but  it  is  more  suitable  for  necklaces,  lorgnettes,  pendants  and 
the  like,  where  friction  is  at  its  minimum.  Set  deep  in  Roman  gold, 
to  protect  it  and  also  bring  out  its  dainty,  dancing,  springlike  light 
and  coloring,  it  is  not  lacking  in  either  beauty  or  distinction.  The 
golden  green  of  the  chrysolite  is  a  whole  world  away  from  the  green 
of  the  emerald,  even  when  the  latter  is  light  in  shade,  but  many 
prefer  it,  as  more  in  harmony  with  modern  colors. 

The  true  chrysolite,  with  which  the  olivine  and  peridot  have 
been  classed,  is  a  very  ancient  stone,  at  one  time  of  more  value 
than  the  diamond.  That  it  even  exists  at  present  is  doubted  by  high 
authorities.  No  chrysolite  suitable  for  cutting  is  now  found  in 
nature;  authentic  material  of  the  name  in  the  market  is  derived 
from  old  ornaments,  and  could  have  come  from  no  mine  now  known 
to  man ;  the  deposit  was  probably  exhausted  or  the  mines  abandoned 
and  their  exact  location  forgotten.  The  ancient  mines  were  on  the 
Island  of  Topazius  in  the  Red  Sea,  about  which  hung  many  a 
fabled  story,  particularly  in  regard  to  this  gem.  It  was  called 
topazius  in  those  days,  but  the  description  applies  to  the  modern 
chrysolite  or  peridot.  Our  topaz  was  unknown  to  them. 

According  to  Pliny,  the  topazius  came  from  the  Red  Sea,  was 
of  a  bright  greenish  yellow,  the  largest  of  all  the  precious  stones, 
and  the  only  one  of  high  value  yielding  to  the  action  of  the  file, 
the  rest  being  polished  by  the  stone  of  Naxos,  or  corundum,  other- 
wise emery.  Like  our  peridot,  it  was  so  soft  as  scarcely  to  scratch 
glass — too  soft  for  serviceable  engraving.  Greek  intagli  on  it  are 
rare,  the  Romans  seem  not  to  have  used  it  at  all,  but  modern  works 
in  it  abound. 

Under  the  head  of  chrysolithos  during  some  periods  were 
classed  many  yellowish  green  stones,  and  some  pure  yellow.  This 

75 


practice  obtains  even  to  the  present  day,  in  the  loose  phraseology  of 
the  trade.  The  transparent  chrysoberyl  of  Brazil  is  often  called 
chrysolite,  though  chrysoberyl  is  the  more  expensive  stone;  Cey- 
lonese  chrysolite  is  tourmaline  of  a  yellowish  green  color;  Orien- 
tal chrysolite,  yellow  green  sapphire;  Saxon  chrysolite,  greenish 
yellow  quartz.  Modern  mineralogists  have  at  last  succeeded  in  dif- 
ferentiating them,  but  it  is  still  exceedingly  difficult  by  the  color 
alone,  which  was  almost  the  sole  test  for  many  centuries,  to  tell 
green  yellow  or  yellow  green  stones  the  one  from  the  other. 

Peridot  varies  in  hardness  from  6.5  to  7,  and  in  specific  gravity 
from  3.2  to  3.7,  and  the  lustre  is  vitreous  to  greasy.  The  greater 
the  amount  of  oxide  of  iron,  the  heavier  and  the  deeper  in  tint. 
Some  time  ago,  when  green  garnets  were  cheaper,  they  were  some- 
times sold  as  "commercial  olivines,"  but  that  mistake  would  hardly 
be  repeated  these  days,  when  the  rare  green  garnet  commands  many 
times  the  price  of  the  plentiful  olivine.  Though  similar  in  weight  and 
hardness,  the  demantoid  is  infinitely  more  beautiful  in  hue,  and  its' 
lustre  adamantine,  with  fugitive  red  flashes,  as  against  the  peridot's 
shimmering  golden  light. 

While  its  hardness  is  low,  the  peridot  takes  a  good  polish,  par- 
ticularly when  treated  with  sulphuric  acid,  but  its  liability  to  show 
wear  has  hitherto  prevented  its  extensive  use.  However,  the  in- 
creasing vogue  for  colored  stones,  and  the  general  fondness  for 
green,  has  swept  it  along  with  the  tide;  but  more  than  anything, 
the  restoration  to  its  ancient  place  as  the  birthstone  for  September 
has  caused  eager  demand  and  sent  the  price  soaring.  Ten  years 
ago  a  karat  peridot  from  New  Mexico  or  Arizona  could  be  bought 
for  $3.  The  new  stones  coming  in  command  nearly  double.  So 
potent  is  one  little  word  from  on  high. 

The  peridot  is  remarkable  as  being  the  only  precious  stone  that 
has  literally  dropped  from  heaven!  It  is  found  in  meteoric  iron,  a 
union  of  nickel,  cobalt  and  other  metals,  but  totally  unlike  any 
composition  on  earth,  and  which  could  not  be  manufactured  or  re- 
produced, in  any  such  quantity  as  the  Peary  meteorites,  for  instance, 
by  the  most  ingenious  man  born.  It  is  practically  steel-iron.  Only 
occasionally  in  meteors  has  there  been  a  peridot  as  large  as  one 
karat,  though  under  such  conditions  it  occurs  transparent  and  of 
fine  color — in  truth  a  celestial  gem. 

While  widely  distributed  as  grains,  or  granular  masses,  the  oc- 
currence of  peridot  crystals  is  more  or  less  rare,  or  was  previous 
to  the  discovery  in  our  West. 

Peridot  differs  from  almost  all  precious  stones  in  its  oneness  of 
color.  No  other  tint  than  yellow  is  ever  mingled  with  the  green  of 
olivine,  peridot  or  chrysolite.  Chrysolite  proper  is  defined  by  some 
authority  as  of  pale  yellowish  green;  peridot,  deep  olive  green; 
olivine,  between  the  two;  but  the  terms  are  changed  from  year  to 
year  according  to  fancy.  They  might  all  as  well  be  known  as  light, 
dark,  medium  peridot,  green  or  yellow  predominating  according  to 
the  specimen.  Because  of  its  scarcity,  chrysolite  was  once  highly 
prized.  It  was  one  of  the  few  ancient  stones,  like  beryl,  valued  for 

76 


itself.  Even  now,  if  of  brilliant  cut  and  large  size,  it  reaches  into 
the  hundreds. 

The  chrysolite  was  once  used  by  all  nations  as  the  birthstone 
for  September,  but  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  the 
sapphire  prevailed.  The  twentieth  has  witnessed  a  reversion  to 
chrysolite,  which  is  said  to  gladden  the  heart  (its  revival  certainly 
has  gladdened  the  heart  of  the  jeweler),  while  sapphire  inculcates 
truth,  virtue  and  constancy.  Both  are  supposed  to  be  efficacious  in 
curing  diseases  of  the  mind. 

An  old  book  says  peridot  cools  passion,  calms  madness,  aug- 
ments wealth,  averts  sudden  death,  and  gives  faith,  all  of  which 
desirable  qualities  go  with  the  sapphire  also. 

Chrysolite  exercised  a  cooling  power  over  purely  material 
things  not  less  than  tumultuous  emotions.  If  held  in  a  pot  of  boiling 
water,  it  would  so  decrease  the  heat  that  the  hand  when  thrust 
in  would  not  be  scalded. 

Like  the  ruby,  it  would  grow  dull  before  poison,  and  recover 
when  the  poison  was  removed.  Powdered  chrysolite  was  a  remedy 
for  asthma,  and  held  on  the  tongue  in  fever  lessened  thirst. 

Found  on  the  Island  of  Topazius  in  the  Red  Sea,  it  was  not 
discernible  by  day,  but  shone  at  night.  Patrols  hunting  for  the  gem 
after  dark  would  cover  with  vases  each  luminous  spot,  returning 
the  next  day  to  cut  out  the  precious  rock.  So  the  legend  ran. 


SPODUMENE. 


Spodumene  or  triphane,  belonging  to  the  pyroxene  group,  at 
first  was  supposed  to  occupy  only  one  locality  in  the  world — Stony 
Point,  Alexander  County,  North  Carolina.  The  specimens  looked 
like  olivine,  but  were  harder,  6.5  to  7,  specific  gravity  about  3.18,  and 
lustre  pearly  to  vitreous.  Later,  they  were  found  to  be  identical  with 
a  fine  transparent  stone,  taking  a  high  polish,  discovered  in  Brazil, 
and  ignorantly  sold  in  Europe  as  chrysoberyl.  The  two  are  much 
alike  in  appearance — a  pale  yellow  or  yellowish  green.  Many  so- 
called  chrysoberyls  in  Brazil,  often  termed  Brazilian  chrysolites,  may 
turn  out  to  be  spodumene.  Spodumene  is  fibrous  and  tough,  in  this 
respect  something  like  jade.  Yet,  it  is  difficult  to  cut  on  account 
of  its  very  easy  cleavage,  being  harder  in  one  direction  than  another. 
Because  of  this,  though  much  harder,  it  is  almost  as  perplexing  a 
lapidistic  problem  as  sphene.  Particularly  is  this  the  case  with  the 
variety  called  Kunzite. 

HIDDENITE. 

A  variety  of  spodumene,  discovered  in  North  Carolina  in  1879, 
at  Stony  Point,  now  called  Hiddenite,  as  well  as  the  gem,  is  named 
after  W.  E.  Hidden,  who  discovered  it.  The  first  specimens  were 
thought  to  be  diopside,  being  transparent  and  greenish  yellow  in 
color.  Some  of  almost  an  emerald  green,  growing  deeper  in  tint 
the  deeper  they  dug,  were  by  Mr.  Hidden  at  first  called  lithia  eme- 
rald, an  essential  constituent  of  spodumene  being  lithia,  until  the 
scientific  world  determined  to  honor  the  discoveror  himself.  Yet, 
though  likened  to  emerald,  even  the  greenest  of  them  have  a  tinge 
of  yellow,  and  the  hardness,  6.5  to  7,  as  well  as  the  color,  is  inferior 
to  emerald.  Hiddenite  is  exclusively  an  American  product.  A  fine 
green  transparent  stone  is  very  rare,  but  can  be  seen  in  both  the 
American  and  British  museums.  It  is  worth  from  $50  to  $100  per 
karat  and  was  in  great  demand  when  first  found,  but  the  supply  was 
soon  exhausted.  Yet  the  earth  in  that  locality  has  only  been  scratch- 
ed, and  some  day  a  fortune  will  fall  to  one  possessed  of  both  means 
and  patience.  For  green  stones  are  in  increasing  demand,  and  Hid- 
denite is  only  a  shade  less  beautiful,  if  a  whole  degree  less  hard, 
than  the  most  costly  gem  in  the  market. 

The  spodumene  first  seen  by  Mr.  Hidden  (even  then,  in  1879, 
an  eminent  mineralogist)  were  in  the  cabinet  of  Mr.  Stevenson  of 
Statesville,  N.  C,  to  whom  they  had  been  given  by  children,  finding 
them  while  at  play  in  a  field.  Having  been  long  on  the  surface  they 
were  pale  and  faded,  and  Mr.  Hidden  thought  them  diopside,  but 
sent  them  to  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  who  judged  them  to  be  kyanite. 
Mr.  Hidden  asked  Mr.  Smith  to  examine  them  more  carefully,  when 

78 


the  latter  returned  the  verdict  of  spodumene,  or  triphane.  Being 
neither  a  mineralogist  nor  a  financier,  Mr.  Stevenson  seemed  not 
interested  in  the  subject  and  declined  to  put  either  cash  or  vitality 
into  a  scientific  search  by  Mr.  Hidden,  who  finally,  in  company  with 
Mr.  Pratt,  mined  and  succeeded  in  bringing  to  the  light  the  totally 
new  variety  of  brilliant  emerald  green  so  long  concealed  from  man- 
kind, and  in  other  ways  proved  North  Carolina's  wealth  of  minerals. 

KUNZITE. 

The  most  conspicuous  variety  of  spodumene  to-day  is  the  ame- 
thystine, recently  discovered  in  California,  at  Mesa  Grande,  in  San 
Diego  County,  and  named  for  Dr.  Kunz.  The  color  of  Kunzite  is 
very  nearly  that  of  the  pink  topaz,  a  delicate  light  rose,  tinged  with 
lilac. 

It  takes  a  good  polish  and  cut  brilliant  makes  a  very  artistic 
ring  stone,  much  more  so  than  amethyst,  at  about  the  same  hard- 
ness, but  is  lighter,  and  of  an  entirely  different  constitution. 

When  Kunzite  was  first  found  near  Pala,  in  Southern  Califor- 
nia, and  was  sent  to  New  York,  it  was  not  recognized  as  spodumene, 
but  thought  to  be  tourmaline,  previously  discovered  in  that  locality. 
Examination  showed  the  crystals  to  be  remarkably  like  Hiddenite 
from  North  Carolina,  differing  only  in  color,  and  with  the  lithia 
minerals  it  was  finally  placed. 

"If  sufficient  differences  are  found  to  exist  between  this  spodu- 
mene and  the  other  known  varieties  of  it,"  says  Dr.  Kunz,  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science,  1903,  "a  new  name  will  be  given  to 
it" 

Differences  were  thought  to  exist,  Charles  Baskerville  proposed, 
in  a  note  to  Science,  the  name  of  Kunzite,  and  Kunzite  it  is  to  this 
day. 

Still,  it  is  remarkably  like  Hiddenite  in  almost  every  essential, 
except  that  of  color,  which  is  no  real  difference.  Sunlight  tends  to 
fade  its  delicate  lilac  pink.  At  great  depths  it  is  often  a  rich  deep 
purple — just  as  Hiddenite,  the  farther  you  go  down,  is  a  richer, 
deeper  green.  Under  the  X-rays  it  exhibits  strong  phosphorescence. 

In  hardness  it  is  about  7,  equal  to  quartz,  but  lapidaries  are 
often  unsuccessful  in  cutting  it,  the  cleavage  being  very  easy,  caus- 
ing it  to  flake. 

Kunzite  is  on  the  American  list  as  the  natal  stone  for  September. 

RHODONITE. 

Rhodonite  belongs  also  to  the  Pyroxene  group.  It  is  a  man- 
ganese spar,  used  largely  in  Russia  as  an  ornamental  stone.  It  is 
very  tough,  hardness  5.5  to  6.5 ;  specific  gravity  3.6  to  3.7.  It  is 
transparent  to  opaque,  lustre  vitreous,  found  sometimes  in  large 
pieces,  and  is  always  cut  en  cabochon.  The  color  is  flesh  red  to 
light  rose  red,  somewhat  ruby-like.  In  appearance  it  resembles  rose 
quartz.  It  is  found  in  the  Ural  Mountains,  in  Persia  and  near 
Cummington,  Mass. 

79 


JADE. 


The  word  jade  is  magical  in  itself.  It  calls  up  first  a  narrow, 
curving  street  in  Singapore,  within  whose  low,  crowded  shops,  fre- 
quented exclusively  by  Chinamen,  looking  anything  but  luxurious, 
there  was  enough  jade  on  sale  to  stock  a  nation.  At  this  pivotal  point 
all  ships  and  all  races  meet,  but  trade  is  carried  on  largely  by  the 
Mongolian,  and  to  him  there  is  no  bracelet  more  beautiful,  no  ring 
more  desirable,  than  one  of  jade.  And  he  is  half  right,  too. 

Another  picture  is  of  Rangoon,  Burmah.  Here  too  we  were 
looking  for  jade.  Out  of  the  depths  of  the  little  shop,  as  we  were 
leaving  without  purchase,  came  a  smiling  Chinaman,  hitherto  unseen, 
wearing  a  short  silk  sack  of  an  indescribable  color,  and  bearing  in 
his  hand  a  jade  bracelet  of  exactly  the  same  hue ! 

Our  hearts  jumped;  for  never  had  we  seen  a  piece  so  beautiful; 
a  perfect  monotone  of  the  most  wonderful  gray-blue;  like  the  su- 
perb masses  of  clouds  piled  high  in  the  eastern  horizon  when  the 
glory  of  sunset  is  upon  that  Oriental  land. 

The  man  knew  he  possessed  a  gem,  rarely  seen,  scarcely  known ; 
and  backed  up  by  the  rich  brocade,  its  charm  was  doubled.  Needless 
to  say,  he  obtained  the  twelve  American  dollars  from  which  he  would 
not  abate  one  penny,  though  we  walked  some  distance  away  before 
finally  surrendering. 

Later,  in  Ceylon,  a  star  sapphire  was  obtained,  as  like  the  brace- 
let in  elusive  coloring  as  a  daughter  is  sometimes  like  her  mother. 

What  artists  are  these  Orientals !  Here  was  one  of  the  rarest 
tints  in  the  world.  Yet  the  Chinaman  had  matched  it  in  his  rich 
garment,  and  at  Colombo  its  worthy  companion  was  found  in  a  shade 
of  corundum. 

The  nephritoids  embrace  nephrite,  jadeite  and  chloromelanite. 
Both  in  French  and  English  these  are  always  referred  to  as  jade. 
Nephrite  belongs  to  the  hornblende  group;  jadeite  and  chlorome- 
lanite  to  the  pyroxene.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  are  classed 
mineralogically  into  two  groups,  they  resemble  one  another  closely. 
Their  hardness  is  as  a  rule  scarcely  that  of  quartz,  but  on  account 
of  a  fibrous  structure,  the  stones  are  exceptionally  tough  and  more 
difficult  to  fracture,  for  commercial  purposes,  than  any  other  in  the 
mineral  world — particularly  nephrite.  Nothwithstanding  its  fibrous 
nature,  the  substance  in  each  case,  when  polished,  appears  to  the 
naked  eye  perfectly  homogeneous,  with  rather  the  appearance  of 
fused  material. 

Nephritoids  are  opaque,  or  at  most  translucent.  Sometimes 
they  are  brightly  colored,  but  as  rule  are  inconspicuous  green,  gray, 
or  white.  They  have  always  been  highly  esteemed  by  primitive  peo- 

80 


pies.  Nephrite  in  New  Zealand  is  worked  by  Maoris,  and  jadeite  in 
Burmah  by  the  Burmese,  in  the  same  way  as  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Europe  in  prehistoric  times.  Jade  holds  first  rank  in  China,  where  it 
is  called  "yu"  and  used  not  only  for  personal  ornaments,  but  for 
vases,  sword  handles,  plates,  bowls,  idols  and  the  like. 

Nephrite  is  known  as  axe-stone,  because  frequently  found  fash- 
ioned into  axe-heads ;  and  also  kidney-stone,  worn  as  a  charm  against 
kidney  diseases,  whence  its  name.  Rings  are  cut  out  of  it  solid.  The 
composition  of  nephrite  is  exactly  the  same  as  actinolite,  in  the  Ziller- 
thal,  Tyrol.  Hardness,  specific  gravity,  cleavage,  color  agree  per- 
fectly, but  the  fibres  of  nephrite  are  finer  and  more  compact.  Never 
found  in  crystalline  form,  it  occurs  in  large  blocks,  which  cannot 
be  broken  as  a  whole  by  a  hammer.  They  must  be  subjected  to  sud- 
den changes  of  temperature,  heated,  then  suddenly  plunged  into  cold 
water.  By  this  means,  it  is  made  to  crack,  when  a  blow  finishes  the 
job. 

Ancient  prehistoric  implements  are  found  mostly  in  Switzerland, 
near  Lake  Constance,  Zurich,  Brienne,  Neutchatel,  left  by  cave- 
dwellers.  Jadeite  remains  are  more  common  all  over  Europe  than 
nephrite. 

In  China,  the  favorite  variety  of  "yu"  is  a  pure  milk-white, 
with  a  soapy  lustre  and  feel.  Pebbles  of  this  quality  run  as  high  as 
$150.  A  small  green  stone,  suitable  for  a  seal,  will  fetch  the  same 
from  a  Chinese  merchant  in  Burmah.  The  task  of  working  such 
material  is  arduous.  It  is  not  cheap  in  China ;  still  less  so  in  Europe 
— particularly  when  carved. 

Chemically,  jadeite  is  similar  to  spodumene.  The  microscope 
shows  an  irregularly  interwoven  mass  of  fine  fibres.  Hence  its  tough- 
ness. Jadeite  in  itself  is  colorless,  and  many  natural  specimens  are 
almost  white.  Often  there  is  a  tinge  of  rose-red  or  some  light  shade 
of  color,  such  as  pale  gray,  greenish  white,  bluish  green,  leek  green, 
apple  green.  Some  are  white,  with  more  or  less  sharply  defined  spots 
of  fine  emerald  green,  due  to  the  presence  of  a  small  amount  of 
chromium.  A  uniform  shade  of  pale  green  is  due  to  iron.  Jadeite  is 
found  in  Upper  Burmah.  The  best  specimens  are  from  river  boul- 
ders, but  it  is  also  quarried  out  of  solid  rock  At  the  quarry  fires 
are  lighted,  then  the  blocks  are  cooled  by  night  air,  which  renders 
them  more  easily  broken  up,  but  it  injures  the  specimens.  Most  of 
these  are  sent  overland  by  mules  to  China,  but  some  find  their  way 
to  Lower  Burmah,  where  minerals  in  a  natural  state  are  wholly 
absent. 

Nephrite  is  found  mostly  in  Asia  and  New  Zealand.  There  is 
some  in  Alaska,  but  jadeite  is  more  common  in  America,  as  well 
as  Europe.  In  the  rough,  chloromelanite  never  yet  has  been  met 
with.  Always  it  is  found  in  ancient  articles,  accompanying  jadeite 
implements,  in  France,  Switzerland  and  Mexico.  It  may  be  con- 
sidered a  jadeite  rich  in  iron,  and  of  a  correspondingly  dark  color, 
a  green  which  is  almost  black. 

Much  of  the  jade  that  comes  from  China  is  said  to  be  prehnite, 
whose  hardness  is  not  above  6.5,  sometimes  lower,  and  specific  grav- 

81 


ity  only  2.9.  In  hardness  the  nephritoids  run  from  6.5  to  7.5, 
specific  gravity  from  2.9  to  3.18,  lustre  vitreous. 

Californite,  a  compact  massive  variety  of  Vesuvianite,  of  various 
shades  of  green,  is  much  like  jade  in  hardness  (6.5),  composition  and 
appearance,  and  can  be  used  much  the  same  way. 

The  Bishop  collection  of  jade  at  the  Metropolitan  Art  Museum 
is  known  the  world  over.  Mr.  Heber  R.  Bishop  was  engaged  in  mer- 
cantile pursuits,  principally  sugar-refining  in  Cuba.  During  the  rev- 
olution of  1873,  he  foresaw  endless  trouble,  and  closed  out  his  busi- 
ness for  far  less  than  its  value.  He  returned  to  New  York,  never- 
theless, with  a  considerable  fortune,  and  settled  down  at  Irvington- 
on-Hudson,  dying  December  10,  1902. 

Not  only  did  he  present  the  Museum  with  his  remarkable  col- 
lection of  jade,  the  result  of  a  lifetime  of  search,  together  with  a 
book  describing  it  worth  itself  $100,  published  privately  and  given 
away  to  various  public  institutions  in  limited  quantities,  but  he  gave 
the  Museum  $55,000,  to  cover  the  cost  of  finishing  the  Bishop  room 
as  he  desired.  It  is  the  finest  Louis  Quinze  room  to  be  seen  any- 
where, foreign  artists  pronouncing  it  the  most  magnificent  in  exist- 
ence, excepting  those  in  the  palace  at  Potsdam  and  Versailles.  More- 
over it  is  a  reproduction  of  the  donor's  own  ball-room. 


82 


SPHENE. 


Sphene,  or  titanite,  is  a  mineral  from  the  ore  of  the  metal  titan- 
ium. The  gem,  generally  a  yellowish-brown  mineral,  the  dark  more 
valued  than  the  light,  is  found  in  wedge-shaped  crystals,  whence  its 
name  from  the  Greek  sphen.  It  occurs  in  Switzerland,  sometimes 
Brazil,  infrequently  in  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  in  long  needles 
enclosed  in  masses  of  transparent  quartz. 

The  sphene  is  soft,  only  5  to  5.5,  lustre  adamantine  to  resinous, 
and  cuts  with  difficulty,  but  a  successful  brilliant  is  so  unique  and 
scarce  that  even  if  very  small  it  commands  a  good  price,  say  $50  a 
karat.  It  is  the  fine  rare  flower,  blooming  at  long  intervals,  of  a 
common  ore,  which  in  one  form,  rutile,  resembles  coal,  and  when 
cut  suggests  the  black  diamond.  Titanic  ore  is  fairly  plentiful  in 
mass,  but  seldom  gives  birth  to  a  crystal  of  gem  quality. 

Intensely  dichroic,  the  sphene's  coloring  is  peculiarly  mixed,  red 
or  green  flashing  with  diamond-like  quickness  and  brilliance  from 
the  yellow-brown  body.  While  not  really  like  any  other  stone,  it  yet 
slightly  suggests  the  brown  diamond.  The  body  of  the  sphene  is 
less  brilliant,  but  the  scintillating  colors  are  more  rich  and  rare. 
Yet  its  softness,  notwithstanding  its  lustre,  which  resembles  that  of 
the  green  garnet,  forbids  hard  usage. 


TURQUOISE. 


The  turquoise  is  exquisite  as  a  decoration,  but  doubtful  as  a 
jewel.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  a  stone,  either  precious  or  semi- 
precious, but  simply  a  substance — a  process;  similar  to  the  opal, 
whose  origin  we  forgive  for  the  sake  of  its  wonderful  color  effects. 
The  turquoise,  one  flat  shade  of  greenish  blue,  is  becoming  to 
scarcely  any  face  or  hand,  but  beautiful  when  encrusted  on  wrought 
gold,  as  in  thimbles,  watchcases,  and  the  like.  As  ear  ornament 
or  brooch  it  is  questionable,  particularly  when  surrounded  by  dia- 
monds. No  complexion,  except  the  very  freshest  and  free  from  ad- 
mixture of  red,  can  stand  the  turquoise,  and  it  must  be  used  sparingly 
even  by  the  young.  It  is  in  harmony  with  but  few  types,  one,  strange 
to  say,  the  young-old  face,  past  the  blushing  period,  framed  in  fluffy 
gray  hair ;  and  the  dark  brunette  in  whose  complexion  there  is  a  sug- 
gestion of  blue. 

Turquoise  is  unique  in  belonging  to  the  phosphates — the  only 
ornamental  stone  given  out  by  that  group.  In  hardness  it  is  about  6 ; 
specific  gravity  2.6  to  2.8 — both  light  and  soft.  It  is  opaque,  never 
found  in  crystals,  has  little  lustre,  and  that  waxy,  and  is 
always  cut  en  cabochon.  Its  beauty  lies  solely  in  its  color. 
This  is  mostly  green,  only  the  finer  specimens  being  blue,  and  these 
often  turn  green  with  age — when  they  are  still  better  liked  by  some. 
The  ancient  Mexicans  thought  as  much  of  the  green  as  the  blue,  and 
the  natives  of  to-day  wear  the  green  in  preference  to  the  blue.  A 
gem  of  soft  greenish  blue,  as  the  sky  or  sea  sometimes  looks  on  per- 
fect summer  evenings,  is  certainly  very  lovely.  The  color  is  said 
to  be  affected  and  improved  by  the  warmth  of  the  body. 

Like  the  opal,  it  is  found  filling  up  cavities  in  the  interior  of 
rocks.  Its  formation  follows  the  decomposition  of  feldspar  crystals, 
of  which  it  often  takes  the  external  form.  The  "old  rock"  is  said 
to  retain  its  color  perpetually;  the  "new  rock"  fades,  or  changes  to 
green.  There  is  also  fossil  turquoise;  not  true  at  all,  but  fossilized 
bone,  tusks  or  teeth  of  the  mammoth. 

The  best  turquoise  is  found  in  Persia.  On  the  eastern  slope  of 
Ali-Mirsai,  a  peak  in  a  chain  of  mountains  over  6,000  feet  high,  are 
stones  of  a  beautiful  dark  blue.  Also  pale  blue  and  green.  There, 
with  the  village  of  Maaden  as  a  center  of  trade,  the  Persian  Govern- 
ment mined  with  success  till  1825,  when  the  people  of  Maaden  took 
hold.  From  that  time  the  industry  declined.  The  stones  in  alluvial 
detritus,  having  a  white  coat  of  weathered  material,  are  said  to  be 
specially  fine  in  color.  This  usually  is  permanent,  but  in  some  of  the 
newly  opened  mines  there  is  turquoise  which  a  short  time  after 

84 


being  exposed  to  the  air  turns  white.  Preserved  in  damp  earth  it  is 
sold  to  unsuspecting  travelers  who  get  "stung." 

In  the  Sinai  peninsula,  there  are  many  poor,  whitish  stones,  and 
some  equal  to  the  best  Persian.  These  are  usually  sold  as  Turkish 
or  Egyptian  turquoise.  They  are  found  at  Moses'  Wells,  the  quaran- 
tine station  for  westbound  ships  through  the  Suez  Canal,  nearly  op- 
posite the  town  of  Suez. 

Beautiful  stones  of  robin's  egg  blue,  as  well  as  pure  azure,  have 
recently  turned  up  in  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  California  and  Nevada, 
to  say  nothing  of  green.  These  deposits  are  now  being  worked 
scientifically  by  Americans,  and  are  proving  to  be  among  the  finest 
in  the  world.  The  American  product  is  rapidly  growing  in  favor, 
and  large  quantities  are  shipped  to  Europe,  where  it  finds  a  ready 
sale  among  cutters. 

Mexico  was  once  a  part  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  the  Aztecs. 
Turquoise  is  supposed  to  be  identical  with  the  green  precious  stone 
chalchihuitl.  William  P.  Blake,  who  re-discovered  the  old  turquoise 
mines,  on  the  mountain  named  after  the  stone,  in  the  fifties,  says  it  is 
known  to  the  Pueblo  and  Navajo  Indians  of  the  present  time  as  chal- 
che-we-to,  supposed  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  old  name.  This  moun- 
tain forms  part  of  the  group  Los  Cerillos,  22  miles  south  of  Santa 
Fe.  That  these  mines,  worked  long  ago  by  Europeans,  as  the  remains 
show,  are  of  great  age  is  proved  by  pines,  cedars  and  other  trees, 
hundreds  of  years  old,  growing  on  the  sides  of  the  pit.  Ancient  tools 
of  various  kinds  were  found.  The  debris  covered  twenty  acres,  with 
large  trees  growing  on  it,  and  everything  pointed  to  the  fact  that 
exceeding  pains  had  been  taken  to  conceal  the  exact  location  of  the 
mines,  all  having  been  carefully  covered  up  before  abandonment. 
This  action  was  caused  by  a  national  disaster  which  befell  the  In- 
dians in  1680.  The  ground  being  undermined  by  the  miners,  a  large 
section  of  the  mountainside  suddenly  fell  in,  killing  many  workers, 
and  causing  the  uprising  of  the  Pueblos,  which  resulted  in  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Spaniards. 

Not  far  from  Los  Cerillos,  but  across  the  border  in  Old  Mexico, 
are  immense  turquoise  deposits,  much  of  the  finest  sky-blue,  owned  in 
turn  by  several  Americans,  one  the  mineralogist,  W.  E.  Hidden,  who 
indulged  in  that  form  of  athletics  known  as  "jumping  the  claim" ; 
but  it  is  a  rough,  barren  country,  similar  to  the  opal  region  in 
Australia,  and  being  surrounded  by  desperadoes,  and  thirty  miles 
from  the  nearest  water,  as  a  commercial  proposition  it  seems  well- 
nigh  hopeless. 

Work  attempted  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  in  various 
New  Mexican  mines,  including  the  one  subject  to  the  great  disaster, 
proved  the  turquoise  to  be  of  poor  quality,  mostly  green,  and  though 
some  money  was  made,  the  venture  was  gradually  abandoned  to 
the  Indians,  whose  methods  are  like  the  Burmese  with  jade,  burning 
the  weathered  rock  for  excavation,  thereby  injuring  or  destroying 
the  turquoise.  Good  blue  is  seldom  found,  and  on  account  of  a 
fraud  perpetrated,  green  turquoises  being  turned  into  those  of  the 

85 


best  color  by  a  surface  application  of  Berlin  blue  and  placed  on 
the  market  as  high-class  stones,  the  trade  let  them  severely  alone. 

The  turquoise  of  the  new  mines  in  our  West  change  color  with- 
in six  months  if  at  all.  Blue,  either  sky  or  robin's  egg,  surviving 
the  first  half  year's  exposure  to  the  light,  so  far  as  experiments  have 
gone,  is  permanent.  The  fancy  of  the  public  for  the  robin's  egg 
tint  is  said  primarily  to  be  due  to  an  important  jewelry  establish- 
ment being  "long"  on  that  shade  and  very  "short"  on  the  gem  color ; 
hence  fashion  was  directed  into  the  proper  channel ! 

The  artificial  composition  of  turquoise  is  very  successful.  Stones 
have  been  obtained  of  exactly  the  same  composition  and  best  blue 
color  which  can  be  detected  only  by  destroying  the  stone.  True 
turquoise  burns  to  a  powder,  but  artificial  runs  together  in  a  solid 
mass,  retaining  its  blue  color  in  the  interior.  Another  test  is  to 
put  it  in  water,  let  it  lie  in  it  some  time,  when  the  false  is  said  to 
assume  a  darker  shade  of  blue,  and  on  the  wet  surface  can  be  made 
out  a  net  work  of  cracks.  A  less  expensive  enamel  is  easily  de- 
tected by  scraping  the  side  with  a  knife.  If  the  true,  it  will  flake ;  if 
not,  it  comes  off  like  powder.  The  blue  of  the  artificial  product 
never  turns  green,  and  many  jewelers  and  their  customers  prefer 
them  on  this  account,  but  they  have  a  hard  expression,  by  no  means 
engaging.  A  thousand  times  the  real  green,  even  of  inferior  quality, 
than  the  artificial  blue. 

Turquoise  matrix  is  almost  as  much  in  favor  as  opal  matrix, 
but  it  is  less  durable.  Beautiful  at  first,  the  pieces  soon  fade  and 
fall  out. 

Turquoise  is  the  birth  stone  for  December  among  the  Poles 
and  Russians,  the  latter  also  using  the  chrysoprase;  but  with  other 
nations,  Jews,  Romans,  Isidorus,  and  Italians  it  is  the  ruby.  The 
turquoise  is  supposed  to  bring  prosperity.  It  is  a  soul  cheerer.  Like 
the  opal,  it  was  thought  in  olden  times  to  change  color  if  the  wearer 
became  ill,  and  regain  it  on  recovery.  It  was  also  the  favorite  gem  of 
equestrians,  preserving  them  from  falls ;  and  was  affected  by  the 
married,  since  it  removed  enmity  after  marital  quarrels. 


86 


QUARTZ. 


The  quartz  group,  with  all  its  divisions  and  ramifications,  is  so 
large  as  to  appall  one.  While  so  widely  distributed  over  the  earth's 
surface  as  to  seem  a  mineral  of  the  most  common  kind,  at  its  highest 
and  best  its  crystals  rank  as  semi-precious  stones,  and  even  in  its 
various  opaque  forms  it  was  greatly  valued  by  the  ancients,  not  only 
as  an  ideal  medium  for  their  camei  and  intagli,  but  as  a  personal 
decoration. 

Quartz  is  7  in  hardness,  specific  gravity  2.6  to  2.7,  and  lustre 
vitreous  to  resinous.  Therefore  its  "gem"  forms,  cairngorm,  smoky 
quartz,  citrine,  frequently  metamorphosed  by  heat  into  the  so-called 
Spanish  topaz ;  amethyst,  rose  quartz  and  rock  crystal  are  in  reality 
harder  than  the  opal,  turquoise,  peridot,  to  say  nothing  of  coral 
and  pearl,  classed  with  precious  stones. 

Under  the  head  of  compact  quartz,  succeeding  the  crystalline, 
comes  chrysoprase,  translucent  but  not  transparent,  and  always  cut 
en  cabochon.  It  is  of  a  lovely  apple  green  color  which,  like  the  rose 
quartz,  upon  long  exposure  to  the  light,  is  apt  to  fade. 

After  the  compact  quartz,  of  which  chrysoprase  is  the  star, 
though  "there  are  others,"  comes  the  long  chalcedony  group,  with 
its  pretty  spots  and  interesting  bands,  including  onyx,  agate,  the 
bloodstone  and  carnelian.  Chalcedony  might  be  said  to  be  a  pic- 
torial quartz,  with  markings  for  beauty  instead  of  bright  lustre.  The 
carnelian,  a  brownish-red  variety  of  chalcedony,  was  called  by  the 
ancients  sard,  and  in  its  soft  color  and  polish,  exactly  what  such  a 
stone  requires,  was  lovelier  far  than  with  the  hard  shine  of  to-day, 
when  it  goes  through  all  sorts  of  unnatural  experiences  at  Oberstein. 
Sardonyx  is  carnelian  or  sard  in  three  distinct  layers,  usually  red, 
white  and  brown. 

The  carnelian,  or  sardonyx,  is  the  birthstone  for  August,  in- 
suring conjugal  love.  It  gives  courage  and  according  to  Marbodus : 

Fate  has  with  virtues  great  its  nature  graced. 
Tied  round  the  neck  or  on  the  finger  placed, 
Its  friendly  influence  checks  the  rising  fray, 
And  chases  spites  and  quarrels  far  away : 
That  where  the  colour  of  raw  flesh  is  found 
Will  staunch  the  blood,  fast  issuing  from  the  wound : 
Whether  from  mangled  limbs  the  torrents  flow 
Or  inward  issues,  source  of  deadly  woe. 

The  mocha-stone  of  India,  as  well  as  our  moss-agate,  is  of  the 
chalcedony  group.  Both  are  hard,  tough  and  beautiful,  and  contain 
green  or  brown  mineral  matter  (oxide  of  iron)  having  an  appear- 
ance of  vegetable  growth,  branches,  leaves  and  moss,  against  the 
water-white  background  of  pure  chalcedony.  In  a  different  way 
it  is  as  pleasing  as  jade,  and  even  more  durable,  for  jade  is  brittle. 

87 


The  agate  is  the  birthstone  for  June,  and  talismanic  gem  of 
October.  It  signifies  health,  wealth  and  longevity.  In  the  words  of 
Marbodus  : 

The  agate  on  the  wearer  strength  bestows, 
With  ruddy  health  his  fresh  complexion  glows ; 
Both  eloquence  and  grace  are  by  it  given, 
He  gains  the  favour  both  of  earth  and  heaven. 

The  bloodstone,  or  heliotrope,  a  deep  green  chalcedony,  with 
red  spots  (oxide  of  iron),  is  the  birthstone  for  March,  and  well 
does  it  serve  its  wearer,  for  it  gives  him  or  her  courage,  strength 
and  wisdom.  Also,  according  to  Marbodus : 

It  gifts  the  wearer  with  prophetic  eye 
Into  the  Future's  darkest  depths  to  spy. 

About  this  same  stone  the  Greek  Orpheus  says : 

'  Through  it  the  eye-balls  with  fresh  lustre  shine: 
E'en  impotence  it  cures  if  mixed  with  wine. 

The  amethyst,  best  known  of  all  the  quartz  group,  and  the  most  ^ 
valuable  of  its  gems,  varies  in  color  from  deep  purple  to  pale  laven- 
der. Excellent  specimens  are  quite  plentiful  in  the  United  States, 
but  the  finest  quality  is  from  Siberia,  a  rich  royal  purple  with  a 
tinge  of  red.  Some  from  the  Ural  Mountains,  of  a  fine  color,  like 
the  alexandrite,  turn  red  by  artificial  light.  Many  of  a  splendid  tint 
come  from  Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Brazil. 

Amethyst  was  once  greatly  valued,  not  only  by  the  ancients,  but 
comparative  moderns.  Queen  Charlotte's  necklace  of  well-matched 
stones,  though  only  of  common  variety,  was  appraised  at  $10,000. 
Now,  for  itself,  it  would  hardly  be  worth  $500.  The  ancients  valued 
the  amethyst  not  only  as  a  perfect  medium  for  intagli,  being  both 
hard  enough  and  soft  enough,  but  because  it  was  a  charm  against 
intoxication,  to  which  the  Romans,  with  their  Lucullan  feasts,  were 
prone.  Wine,  therefore,  was  often  drunk  from  amethyst  cups. 

Deep  violet  is  the  favorite  tint  to-day,  but  while  the  ancients 
were  very  susceptible  to  the  imperial  purple,  particularly  when,  like 
the  Tyrian  dye,  in  its  depths  lurked  crimson,  they  considered  the 
pale  stones,  slightly  tinted  with  lilac,  the  most  lustrous. 

Amethyst  is  the  birthstone  for  February,  as  well  as  the  guardian 
angel  talismanic  gem  for  November.  Its  office  is  to  promote  deep 
love  not  less  than  prevent  intoxication. 

Quartz  balls  in  the  past  as  at  present  were  used  for  purposes 
of  divination.  The  custom  originated  in  India,  but  is  popular  with 
the  old  mammys  of  our  South.  Moonstone  balls  are  supposed  to 
have  their  efficacy,  too. 

The  potency  of  a  birthstone  is  thought  to  be  increased  if  the 
natal  day  corresponds  to  the  zodiacal  sign,  which  is  not  always  the 
case,  the  signs  overlapping  in  the  latter  part  of  each  month,  con- 
stituting the  "cusp,"  partaking  of  both  signs,  under  which  genius  is 
apt  to  be  born,  according  to  astrology. 

But  this  is  a  separate  study,  involving  the  influence  of  the 
zodiac  on  human  life,  with  ramifications  of  its  own. 

88 


MOONSTONE. 


The  feldspar  group  flowers  in  the  moonstone,  the  commonest 
semi-precious  stone  in  Ceylon,  valued  far  more  here  than  there.  In 
Colombo  moonstones  can  be  bought  for  a  few  pennies  each,  a  hand- 
ful for  the  English  pound.  Fine,  clear  stones,  translucent  but  never 
transparent,  blue,  gray  or  colorless,  with  a  peculiar  sheen,  cut  al- 
ways en  cabochon,  are  really  very  lovely.  The  blue  are  the  most 
rare,  scarce  even  in  Ceylon,  the  only  ones  which  command  a  price 
there,  though  hardly  more  attractive  to  strangers  than  the  gray,  in 
its  soft,  gentle,  mysterious  opalescence.  When  cut  in  a  high  dome 
or  in  balls,  the  spot  of  light  follows  the  eye  like  the  play  of  light 
in  a  drop  of  water  suddenly  congealed,  but  more  poetically  likened 
to  the  luminosity  of  the  moon.  This  is  admirably  reproduced  in 
ground  glass  imitations. 

Adularia  is  the  same  stone  when  white  and  colorless  and  sub- 
transparent.  The  hardness  is  6  to  6.5,  specific  gravity  2.4  to  2.6. 
It  has  light  green  and  red  tints,  as  well  as  blue  and  pearly  gray. 
Sometimes  the  play  of  light  shows  green  or  red  floating  on  a  gray 
background.  But  that  best  known  to  jewelers  is  either  gray  or  blue. 

It  is  found  at  Mount  Adula,  Switzerland,  in  the  Scandinavian 
Peninsula  and  the  United  States,  to  a  small  extent,  but  the  great 
deposits  are  in  Ceylon,  where  it  occurs  in  granite  rocks. 

Moonstone  is  an  alternative  August  birthstone  for  those  who 
do  not  care  for  sardonyx  or  carnelian.  In  the  Orient  it  is  a  sacred 
stone.  It  signifies  good  luck. 

With  the  loved  moon  it  sympathetic  shines, 

Grows  with  her  increase — with  her  wane  declines; 

And  since  it  thus  for  heav'nly  changes  cares, 

The  fitting  name  of  sacred  stone  it  bears. 

A  powerful  philter  to  ensnare  the  heart, 

It  saves  the  fair  from  dire  consumption's  dart 

Marbodus. 

SUNSTONE. 

Another  form  of  feldspar  is  sunstone,  unattractive  and  seldom 
used  as  an  ornament.  The  public  prefers  the  goldstone,  a  manu- 
factured article,  but  more  interesting  than  the  stone  it  simulates. 

AMAZONSTONE. 

Amazonite  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  jade,  but  is  really 
a  feldspar,  found  along  the  banks  of  South  America's  great  river. 
It  is  used  to  a  limited  extent  in  decorative  jewelry. 

LABRADORITE. 

A  score  of  years  ago  a  beautiful  greenish  blue  substance  was 
found  in  Labrador,  at  first  thought  to  be  a  form  of  onyx,  but 
eventually  identified  as  feldspar,  and  made  into  various  household 
articles  by  the  Tiffany  Company. 

89 


LAPIS  LAZULI. 


Lapis  lazuli  is  a  magnificent  blue  stone.  Fine  specimens  are 
used  sometimes  as  gems,  and  their  color  is  far  more  intense  than 
that  of  any  other  opaque  blue  stone.  The  sapphirus  of  the  ancients 
was  lapis  lazuli,  not  the  specimen  of  corundum  now  bearing  that 
name.  For  centuries  this  stone  was  prized  above  all  others,  and  for 
the  beauty  of  its  color  alone.  This  was  the  standard  to  which  all 
blues  were  compared.  It  is  the  only  one  resembling  in  purity  of 
color  the  blue  of  the  spectrum.  Eventually  a  process  was  discovered 
for  converting  the  dazzling  tint  into  ultramarine.  Nowadays  cobalt 
is  the  basis  of  that  same  hue.  For  long  ultramarine  came  from  Asia 
— hence  its  name — "beyond  the  sea."  Lapis  lazuli  may  be  considered 
to  contain  natural  ultramarine,  and  before  the  introduction  of  the 
artificial,  this  pigment  was  very  expensive.  "Ultramarine  ashes"  is 
the  residuum  left  after  the  color  has  been  extracted.  It  is  used  by 
painters  where  a  neutral  tint  is  required,  being  of  a  purer  and  more 
tender  gray  than  that  produced  by  a  mixture  of  positive  colors. 

Lapis  is  not  always  deep  blue:  sometimes  pale  blue,  greenish, 
violet,  reddish,  pure  green;  sometimes  flecked  with  yellow,  shining, 
metallic  spots,  due  to  iron  pyrites.  It  is  not  a  homogeneous  stone, 
but  a  mixture  of  several  substances.  The  ground  mass  is  white  cal- 
cite.  In  this  the  various  minerals  are  imbedded,  in  varying  propor- 
tions. Many  of  these  are  hornblende,  but  the  remaining  grains  are 
of  the  true  lapis  substance,  and  impart  to  the  mineral  its  color  and 
other  characteristics.  If  these  are  present  in  large  quantities,  the 
color  of  the  stone  is  deep  and  full;  if  not,  their  irregularity  makes 
it  patchy.  Its  hardness  is  5.5 ;  specific  gravity  2.5. 

Lapis,  in  short,  is  a  limestone,  more  or  less  impregnated  with 
pigment  and  probably  formed  by  the  action  of  granite  on  limestone, 
through  terrestrial  fire.  It  is  what  is  known  as  a  "contact  product." 
The  richest  deposits  are  in  Asia,  but  it  is  also  found  in  Chili  and 
the  neighborhood  of  Rome  and  Naples.  Mines  existed  in  Central 
Asia  as  far  back  as  Marco  Polo.  It  is  not  as  valuable  as  it  once  was. 
The  price  depends  on  the  purity  and  depth  of  color.  It  is  used  for 
various  articles,  vases,  bowls,  candle-sticks,  and  also  for  decorating 
interiors.  The  winter  palace  at  St.  Petersburg  is  thus  decorated,  and 
San  Martino,  Naples.  Imitations  in  glass,  also  colored  agate  and 
azurite  are  all  chemically  different. 


90 


MALACHITE. 


Malachite  is  green  carbonite  of  copper,  formed  in  copper  ore 
deposits  in  the  Urals,  Australia  and  United  States.  Its  hardness  is 
3.5  to  4;  specific  gravity  3.7  to  4;  lustre  adamantine  to  vitreous. 
The  bright  green  of  its  color  is  lined  by  darker  shades,  the  structure 
concentric,  evidence  of  deposition  from  a  solution  in  water  of  suc- 
cessive layers. 

In  this  country  it  is  seldom  used  for  personal  adornment,  ex- 
cept in  connection  with  azurite,  with  which  it  is  sometimes  found. 
Cut  en  cabochon  across  the  alternate  layers,  a  fine  mottled  effect 
is  produced.  But  little  of  this  combined  form  is  to  be  found  now, 
as  most  of  it  was  melted  for  copper  before  it  came  into  vogue  for 
jewelry. 

Malachite  and  to  a  lesser  extent  azurite  are  infinitely 
more  beautiful  in  the  natural  state,  with  the  subdued  coloring  of  the 
mineral,  and  its  soft,  fuzzy,  velvety  texture.  Polishing  simply  makes 
these  lovely  greens  and  blues  bold  and  hard. 

AZURITE. 

Azurite  is  a  form  of  chessylite,  which  is  very  similar  to  mala- 
chite. It  has  a  fine  dark-blue  color,  like  that  of  lapis-lazuli.  In 
hardness  it  is  3.7,  in  specific  gravity  it  is  3.8,  so  it  is  both  softer 
and  denser  than  lapis.  Its  lustre  is  vitreous  and  the  mineral  takes 
a  good  polish. 

BENETOITE. 

New  minerals  or  substances  have  lately  been  found,  but  play 
little  part  in  personal  adornment.  Benetoite  is  one  of  these,  dis- 
covered in  1907  in  the  Mt.  Diablo  range  near  the  San  Benito,  Fresno 
County  line,  California,  by  Messrs.  Hawkins  and  Sanders.  Chem- 
ically it  is  a  very  acid  titano-silicate  of  barium,  hexagonal,  hardness 
6  to  6.5,  highly  refractive.  It  was  said  at  first  that  if  cut  right  it 
would  rival  the  blue  sapphire  in  color  and  brilliance,  but  one  glance 
at  it  shows  this  to  be  a  wild  exaggeration. 


PEARL,  CORAL,  AMBER,  JET. 


The  above  are  not  true  members  of  the  mineral  world,  and 
therefore  fail  to  interest  the  lover  of  precious  stones.  Pearl  and 
coral,  fundamentally,  are  animal  substances,  as  amber  and  jet  are 
vegetable. 

Oriental  pearls  are  the  most  beautiful,  those  with  a  cream  or 
yellow  tint  and  lively  lustre,  a  tint  and  lustre  that  they  do  not  lose 
from  wear,  like  the  perfectly  white  specimens  affected  by  Occidental 
peoples.  Pearls  of  the  greatest  value  nave  a  pure  Orient  white,  black, 
or  pink.  That  is  to  say,  a  distinctive  color  with  a  lustre  that  almost 
sparkles  in  the  light. 

Baroque  pearls,  those  of  an  irregular  shape,  found  mostly  in 
fresh  water,  are  effective  in  long  chains,  even  if  comparatively  in- 
expensive. Indeed,  nothing  is  less  impressive,  considering  its  cost, 
than  a  string  of  small  pearls.  Only  the  large  gems  of  a  queen, 
whether  of  Italy  or  Finance,  hold  the  attention,  when  clasped  about 
a  pretty  throat. 

A  fine  Oriental  pearl  on  the  lobe  of  a  delicate  ear  is  not  with- 
out its  charm,  but  there  are  few  ornaments  so  lacking  in  durability. 
Even  the  opal  is  less  fragile  as  well  as  more  beautiful. 
The  hardness  of  pearl  as  compared  to  the  best  opal  is 
about  as  4  to  6.  The  weight  of  the  pearl  is  a  trifle  more  than  opal, 
2.7  against  2.2.  In  ancient  jewelry,  the  settings  once  occupied  by 
pearls  are  now  either  empty  or  inhabited  by  a  crumbling,  discolored, 
nondescript  substance. 

More  about  the  pearl  will  be  found  under  a  separate  head. 

CORAL. 

Coral  is  the  product  of  polyps  who  make  this  substance  under 
the  surface  of  the  sea.  It  is  found  in  branches,  like  a  leafless  tree, 
of  varying  sizes,  and  irregular  shapes,  some  several  feet  long,  and 
an  inch  in  diameter,  but  commonly  a  foot  high  and  half  an  inch  thick. 
Red  is  the  usual  color,  but  it  is  also  white  and  black.  The  color 
varies  according  to  fashion.  A  little  while  ago  it  was  a  very  pale 
pink,  bordering  on  white.  Now,  a  beautiful  wild  rose  is  the  tint  most 
in  vogue.  For  many  years  coral  has  been  out  of  style,  but  like  almost 
every  other  material  once  used  in  jewelry,  it  is  again  commanding 
attention. 

Precious  coral  is  made  from  the  calcareous  axis  of  the  "Isis 
Nobilis,"  distinguished  by  its  size,  hardness,  capability  of  polish,  and 
fine  red  color. 

The  polyps  consist  of  a  soft  gelatinous  substance.  When  they 
sit  undisturbed  in  their  cells,  one  can  see  distinctly,  by  means  of  a 

92 


microscope,  that  each  possesses  eight  soft,  triangular,  leafy  feelers 
or  tentacles,  which  are  notched  on  each  side,  and  situated  in  a  circle 
round  the  mouth,  by  means  of  which  they  catch  their  food  and  bring 
it  to  this  orifice,  whence  it  goes  to  a  hole  in  the  stomach,  well  mixed 
with  water,  and  thence  is  conveyed  in  little  vesicles  to  the  whole 
mass  of  polyps  in  communication  with  each  other.  If  the  feeler  of 
one  is  touched  ever  so  slightly,  the  act  is  conveyed  sympathetically 
to  all  in  the  coral  hive.  Yet,  though  possessed  of  this  common  sensa- 
tion, which  wonderfully  vibrates  through  the  whole  organism,  they 
apparently  have  none  of  the  five  senses. 

Coral  is  found  off  the  coast  of  Africa  and  Corsica,  polished  and 
extensively  sold  at  Naples.  An  inferior  quality,  but  of  good  color, 
is  exported  by  Japan.  There  is  any  amount  of  excellent  imitation. 

Coral  was  a  greater  all-round  charm  and  specific  than  per- 
haps any  other,  and  strange  to  say,  in  India,  Egypt,  China,  and  Italy 
it  preserves  much  of  its  meaning  to  this  day.  Medicinally  it  used 
to  be  taken  as  an  astringent  and,  together  with  a  preparation  of 
pearls,  was  given  to  infants  as  a  cure  for  vomiting  and  colic.  It 
was  supposed  to  be  a  heart  stimulant,  curing  fevers,  and  neutralizing 
poison.  Hung  on  fruit  trees,  it  protected  them  from  hail,  lightning, 
wind,  and  gave  fertility.  The  Brahmins  of  the  East  continue  to 
place  it  upon  their  dead,  to  prevent  evil  spirits  from  carrying  off  the 
corpse ;  while  in  Italy  the  living  wear  it  as  a  protection  from  "The 
Evil  Eye"  ;  and  in  Egypt,  after  being  treated  with  lemon  and  burned, 
it  is  taken  as  a  tonic.  No  stone  save  jade  do  the  Chinese  value  more. 

Coral  is  still  referred  to,  in  some  books,  as  "Gorgias,"  because 
of  the  deed  of  Perseus. 

You  remember  Medusa,  that  awful  Gorgon,  with  her  head  of 
snakes,  whom  no  man  could  kill,  because  one  glance  of  her  wicked 
eye  turned  him  to  stone. 

But  at  last  Perseus,  acting  on  a  hint  from  a  friend,  attacked 
her  rather  ungallantly  from  the  rear,  and  severed  her  head  from  her 
body,  ridding  the  world  of  one  terror  by  a  single  blow. 

He  carried  his  gory  burden  to  the  sea,  letting  the  blood  run  from 
the  hideous  locks  into  the  water.  Then,  being  possessed  of  sound 
nerves,  and  more  than  usually  tired,  he  fell  asleep. 

While  he  slept,  the  evil  charm  began  to  work,  even  in  death. 
The  blood  of  Medusa,  running  from  the  snaky  hair  into  the  water, 
curled  about  certain  ocean  growths,  turning  their  beautiful  green 
to  stone.  And  the  stone  became  red,  like  the  ooze  enveloping  their 
stems,  the  blood  of  the  monster. 

When  Perseus  awoke,  he  could  hardly  believe  his  senses.  Min- 
erva came  along,  fearing  for  her  brother's  safety.  She  was  equally 
astonished. 

To  commemorate  his  great  achievement,  she  forthwith  endowed 
the  new  stone  shrub,  christened  by  her  Gorgias,  "in  memory  of," 
with  every  possible  power  for  good,  to  offset  as  much  as  possible  the 
harm  done  by  the  Gorgon  while  living,  and  this  is  why  coral  is  so 
valued  to  this  very  hour. 

93 


AMBER. 

Amber,  prized  less  as  an  ornament  than  as  safeguard  from 
diseases  of  the  throat,  was  for  long  a  mystery  to  the  ancients. 
It  is  in  reality  the  resin  of  pre-historic  trees,  and  is  found  always 
on  the  seashore,  washed  up  by  the  waves.  The  Baltic  coast  is  the 
headquarters  of  amber,  though  some  is  found  about  Japan. 

The  pale,  clear,  transparent  yellow  is  the  most  common,  the 
"clouded,"  as  it  is  called,  opaque  yellow,  costing  more.  But  the 
most  effective  of  all  is  reddish-brown,  in  the  form  of  large  faceted 
beads,  from  Sicily. 

Its  hardness  is  2  to  2.5,  specific  gravity  1.8,  and  it  is  very  elec- 
tric. 

Poppaea's  hair  was  described  by  Nero,  in  the  first  year  of  Our 
Lord,  as  like  amber.  Pliny  considers  this  monstrous!  Such  hair 
was  very  much  admired  in  Latin  Rome,  because  extremely  rare.  It 
might  well  have  been  called,  if  like  the  amber  of  Sicily,  "hyacinthine." 

JET. 

Jet  is  generally  admitted  by  authorities  to  be  a  variety  of  fossil 
trees,  or  coal,  often  called  black  amber,  particularly  on  the  Baltic 
coast. 

Some  insist  on  regarding  it  as  a  black  mineral,  known  to  the 
ancients  as  gagates,  from  the  river  Gagas  in  Syria,  at  the  mouth  of 
which  it  was  found. 

Still  others  say  that  most  of  the  jet  now  used  is  onyx,  a  chal- 
cedony chemically  treated  to  produce  a  fine  black  stone,  usually  with 
a  dull  polish  instead  of  the  bright. 

Its  hardness  is  1.5;  specific  gravity,  1.3,  at  once  the  lightest  and 
softest  of  "gems/1 


94 


PEARL. 


The  pearl,  though  last,  is  not  least.  Ranked  among  precious 
stones,  it  is  very  far  from  being  a  stone,  and  is  therefore  less  in- 
teresting to  the  mineralogist  than  to  Society.  Its  origin  is  not  im- 
pressive, like  that  of  the  diamond,  which  has  to  do  with  cataclysms 
and  subterranean  fires,  the  titanic  struggles  of  our  planet  to  fit  it- 
self for  man.  It  is,  on  the  contrary  the  result  of  the  humble  mollusc, 
lowest  of  organic  life,  to  protect  itself  from  an  intruder,  some  for- 
eign inorganic  substance,  such  as  a  grain  of  sand,  a  bit  of  wood, 
the  dead  larvae  of  a  fish.  The  rightful  owner  of  the  iridescent 
watery  home  sets  up  a  protest,  exudes  a  potent  secretion  from  its 
useful  mantle,  and  envelops  the  atom  in  a  soft  jelly-like  substance  en- 
closed in  a  sac,  which  gradually  hardening  is  later  covered  with 
concentric  layers  of  nacre,  similar  to  the  lining  of  its  shell,  and  lo, 
the  pearl ! 

"Unable  to  resist,  to  rid  itself  of  the  opposing  evil,  it  exercises 
the  power  given  to  it  by  the  Creator  and  converts  the  pain  into  per- 
fection, the  grief  into  glory,"  says  Kunz's  "Book  of  the  Pearl,"  al- 
most the  last  word  on  this  absorbing  subject.  In  the  hardly  more 
poetic  verse  of  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  half  a  century  ago : 

Know  you,  perchance,  how  that  poor  formless  wretch — 
The  Oyster — gems  his  shallow  moonlit  chalice? 
Where  the  shell  irks  him,  or  the  sea-sand  frets, 
He  sheds  this  lovely  lustre  on  his  grief. 

To  go  back  as  far  as  Hafiz,  he  too  has  his  admonitory  word 
and  lesson:  • 

Learn  from  yon  Orient  shell  to  love  thy  foe, 
And  store  with  pearls  the  wound  that  brings  thee  woe. 

The  pearl  oyster  inhabits  warm  water;  it  never  dwells  very 
far  from  the  Equator.  The  most  ancient  fisheries  were  in  the  Persian 
Gulf,  about  the  Island  of  Behreim,  a  high  dignitary  of  which  once 
said  to  a  traveler :  "We  are  all,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  the 
slaves  of  one  master — Pearl."  Yet  now  as  in  the  past,  the  Gulf  of 
Manaar,  in  the  shoal  water  between  Ceylon  and  India,  is  the  chief 
source  of  supply  of  the  best  pearls  for  the  whole  world.  They  exist 
there  in  great  numbers,  and  while  not  of  the  largest  size,  they  are 
of  the  finest  lustre.  The  Persian  pearls  are  not  as  white  as  those 
of  Ceylon,  but  are  larger.  They  are  yellowish  as  a  rule,  though 
pink  and  black  are  sometimes  found,  if  not  much  valued  there.  The 
yellowish  are  always  favorites  with  the  Orientals;  they  are  more 
becoming  to  their  dusky  skins,  and  are  thought  to  retain  their 
lustre  longer.  It  was  a  Persian  pearl  which  was  shown  to  the  French 

95 


jeweler  and  traveler  Tavernier,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  by  the 
Prince  of  Muscat,  to  whom  Aurangzebe,  the  Great  Mogul,  offered 
for  it  in  vain  $45,000.  The  description  of  it  by  Tavernier  sounds 
very  much  like  that  of  La  Pellegrina,  though  it  weighed  only  twelve 
karats  to  the  latter's  twenty-eight.  It  was  shown  to  Tavernier  and 
others  after  an  entertainment  at  Osman,  the  trade  centre  or  "port" 
of  the  Persian  pearl  fisheries,  as  Golconda  in  India,  though  far  from 
the  sea,  was  the  port  for  diamonds,  and  Querataro  in  Mexico  for 
opals.  Like  La  Pellegrina,  it  was  said  to  be  "the  most  beautiful 
pearl  in  all  the  world,"  and  "so  clear  and  lustrous  as  to  appear  trans- 
parent." The  Prince  drew  it  from  a  small  pouch  around  his  neck, 
and  rolled  it  on  the  table  with  his  little  finger,  just  as  Zosimo  did 
with  La  Pellegrina. 

Next  to  the  Oriental  pearls  in  beauty,  and  very  similar  to  the 
Cingalese  in  every  way,  are  those  of  Venezuela.  It  seems  strange 
that  the  loveliest  on  the  globe,  from  Persia,  Ceylon  and  Venezuela, 
those  fully  entitled  to  the  name  Margaretiferae,  should  have  shells  of 
practically  no  worth  and  beauty.  While  the  nacreous  lining  is  rich 
and  brilliant,  the  shell  is  of  small  size,  ugly  appearance  and  value- 
less as  mother-of-pearl,  which  is  supplied  in  great  quantities  by 
species  giving  forth  very  poor  pearls — the  law  of  compensation,  in 
full  force  everywhere.  Fisheries  as  a  rule  would  not  pay  if  the  trade 
in  pearl  were  not  supplemented  by  that  in  mother-of-pearl,  the  supply 
of  which  is  more  or  less  abundant  and  the  demand  in  arts  and  manu- 
factures constant. 

It  seems  strange,  too,  that  the  pearl  oyster,  from  which  come 
the  gems  most  prized,  gracing  the  necks  of  the  high-born  before 
all  others,  is  called  the  Margaretifa  vulgaris.  Its  Venezuela  kinsman 
escapes  this  stigma  by  having  the  vulgaris  changed  to  radiata,  which 
at  least  has  a  poetic  sound.  Of  course  the  "vulgaris"  applies  more 
particularly  to  the  shells,  which  are  ordinary  and  unsightly,  and 
never  more  so  than  when  decomposing  on  a  Ceylon  shore,  covered 
with  horrible  flies,  till  they  are  ripe  for  opening. 

Yet  as  'The  Book  of  the  Pearl"  says:  "No  matter  how  foul, 
how  coral-covered,  or  over-grown  with  sponges  and  sea-weeds  the 
exterior  may  be,  all  is  clean  and  beautiful  within." 

The  great  bulk  of  Ceylon  pearls  are  silvery  white,  but  occa- 
sionally they  are  yellowish,  pinkish  and  so-called  black,  really  brown 
or  slate-colored.  The  fisheries  have  now  been  leased,  for  a  long  term 
of  years,  to  a  syndicate  called  the  Ceylon  Company  of  Pearl  Fishers. 
The  Government  regulates  the  fishing,  and  receives  a  certain  propor- 
tion of  the  income,  which  it  was  perhaps  the  more  ready  to  do  after 
a  full  decade  or  two  of  "lean"  years.  But  since  this  barren  period, 
ending  about  1902,  the  fisheries  have  been  quite  prosperous,  even 
before  the  syndicate  gained  control.  The  spring  of  1905  witnessed 
a  record  catch,  when  pearl  and  nothing  but  pearl  was  talked  contin- 
ually in  those  waters,  as  I  personally  observed.  An  accident  hap- 
pening to  the  boat  of  the  regular  line,  the  little  steamer  Aska  was 
substituted  for  a  few  nights,  in  the  passage  across  the  Gulf  of  Ma- 
naar  from  Colombo  to  Tuticorin,  It  was  taken  for  the  purpose  from 

96 


the  pearl  fisheries,  and  the  conversation  of  the  officers  naturally  ran 
largely  on  pearl,  while  we  two  women,  the  sole  passengers,  over 
the  worst  stretch  of  sea,  for  its  size,  on  the  globe,  lay  white  and 
still.  La  Pellegrina  itself  would  not  have  interested  us  at  that 
crucial  hour! 

The  Netherland  East  Indies,  particularly  about  Celebes,  gives 
forth  some  fine  white  pearls,  like  the  beautiful  Macassar  shell.  Rare- 
ly are  they  colored,  though  some  have  a  yellowish  tinge.  They  are 
carried  for  sale  to  the  free  port  of  Singapore.  The  fishing  there 
for  many  years  was  happy-go-lucky,  anybody  going  in,  but  re- 
cently the  Dutch  Government  has  restricted  all  business  to  subjects 
of  its  own  nationality,  and  such  as  legally  have  been  endowed  with 
special  privileges. 

On  the  northern  and  western  coasts  of  Australia,  more  espe- 
cially in  Sharks  Bay,  have  been  found  remarkable  pearls  of  a  deep 
yellow,  and  also  off  the  Sulu  Islands,  in  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
midway  between  Borneo  and  the  Philippines.  It  is  in  Sulu  that  the 
superstition  about  the  yellowish  pearl  found  in  the  nautilus  pre- 
vails. If  worn  in  a  ring  to  battle,  the  warrior  will  surely  be  killed. 

In  most  of  the  warmer  waters  of  the  Pacific,  notably  the  South 
Sea  Islands,  are  found  good  pearls.  The  methods  of  fishing  them 
are  primitive;  it  is  here  that  man  most  nearly  approaches  the  am- 
phibious species.  About  Tahiti,  the  port  of  the  Society  Islands,  the 
natives  are  such  wonderful  swimmers  as  to  seem  fish  rather  than 
human.  The  diver  wears  no  armor,  a  stone  attached  to  the  foot 
carries  him  quickly  down,  and  he  accomplishes  a  great  deal,  as  do  all 
pearl  divers,  when  we  consider  that  they  can  remain  below  but  little 
over  a  minute.  The  helmet,  wherever  used,  brings  up  more  dead 
men  than  pearls,  they  say,  and  beyond  frustrating  the  tyranny  of 
masters,  restricting  the  hours  of  labor,  and  the  risk  run,  it  seems 
better  to  leave  things  much  as  they  have  been  for  centuries,  par- 
ticularly the  delicate  human  element,  the  diver  who  is  the  crux 
of  the  whole  situation. 

In  the  Western  world,  the  most  important  ocean  finds  are  off 
the  coasts  of  Mexico,  more  conspicuously  Lower  California.  Here  is 
the  main  habitat  of  the  black  pearl. 

The  Panama  beds  play  little  part  in  the  market.  Valuable  pearls 
are  not  common,  those  found  do  not  command  a  high  price,  and 
the  fisheries  have  steadily  declined.  The  colors  are  from  white  to 
green  and  dead  gray,  sometimes  greenish  black,  the  last  being  best 
liked.  As  a  rule  they  are  sold  in  Paris,  because  of  close  commercial 
relations  between  France  and  the  Isthmus,  not  because  they  are 
more  valued  there,  whence  they  sometimes  find  their  way  to  the 
United  States.  These  pearls  were  discovered  by  Balboa. 

On  the  coast  of  California,  about  the  Catalina  Islands,  is  found 
the  abalorie,  or  ear  shell,  a  univalve.  Occasionally  a  very  beautiful 
pearl  is  found  in  this  species,  usually  irregular  in  shape,  of  a  lovely 
green,  sometimes  fawn  color,  with  an  intense  flame-like  iridescence. 
Such  is  the  wonderful  pear-shaped  jewel,  weighing  over  40  karats, 
which  formed  the  drop  to  Nordica's  necklace  of  colored  pearls,  one 

97 


of  the  most  exquisite  ornaments  in  the  world.  Pearls  of  various 
delicate  hues  are  set  in  filigree  gold  and  present  in  the  best  work  of 
the  Occident  all  the  subtle  charm  of  the  Orient. 

The  abalone  is  gathered  more  for  its  beautiful  shell  than  its 
casual  pearls,  the  shell  itself  bringing  hundreds  of  dollars  each, 
sometimes  a  thousand  or  more.  In  color  and  iridescence  its  nacre 
surpasses  anything  of  the  kind  anywhere,  but  the  supply  of  shells 
is  limited,  almost  as  much  so  as  its  practicable  pearls,  few  being 
symmetrical  enough  for  jewelry;  though  imitations,  never  far  away 
from  any  attractive  thing,  are  everything  the  pearl  should  be — ex- 
cept true ! 

About  the  Bahama  Islands,  near  Florida,  flourishes  the  conch 
shell,  in  which  is  found  the  finest  specimen  of  the  pink  pearl.  These 
also  are  closely  imitated  in  beads  of  the  pale  pink  coral  of  Italy, 
Japan  and  the  West  Indies,  and  sometimes  of  the  conch  shell  itself. 
But  the  lens  shows  the  layers  of  all  these  substances  to  be  horizontal 
instead  of  concentric,  and  no  imitation,  however  good,  ever  yet  has 
been  able  to  reproduce  the  pearl's  special  sheen. 

Columbus  on  his  third  voyage  discovered  pearls  in  possession 
of  savages  about  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  South  America,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Orinoco.  Though  the  natives  used  them  for  decoration,  they 
did  not  much  value  them,  and  readily  exchanged  them  for  trifles. 
The  small  pearl  they  valued  scarcely  at  all.  It  may  not  generally 
be  known  that  the  seed  pearl  is  not  a  seed,  but  the  smallest  of  all 
pearls.  Once  it  was  believed  that  pearls  really  propagated  them- 
selves, when  closely  confined  and  covered  with  rice.  But  seed  pearls 
are  those  too  minute  to  be  used  in  any  way  except  as  a  decoration 
for  a  background  of  mother-of-pearl  or,  strung  on  horse  hair,  for 
ornaments  of  filigree  gold,  or  on  threads  of  many  strands  for  neck- 
laces. An  American  woman  has  such  a  necklace  of  twisted  strings 
containing  126,000  pearls ! 

Most  of  the  pearls  found  in  the  streams  and  brooks  of  Europe 
and  this  country  are  irregular  in  shape.  From  these  come  the  pop- 
ular baroque,  and  sometimes  a  fine  sphere,  perhaps  equal  to  the 
Oriental.  The  lustre  may  be  very  beautiful,  but  usually  it  is  a  dead 
white,  suggesting  chalk.  Colored  pearls  are  found  more  plentifully 
in  fresh  water  than  anywhere  else.  While  in  salt  water  the  color 
of  the  pearl  follows  as  a  rule  that  of  the  shell,  white  in  white,  black 
in  black,  yellow  in  yellow,  this  is  not  so  certain  in  fresh.  Color  in 
any  event  has  no  connection  with  lustre. 

A  tremendous  excitement  was  created  in  1857  by  the  finding 
of  a  magnificent  pink  pearl  at  Notch  Brook,  near  Paterson,  N.  J. 
It  was  bought  from  the  carpenter  who  discovered  it  by  Charles  L. 
Tiffany,  who  paid  for  it  $1,500,  reselling  it  to  a  French  jeweler  for 
$2,500,  who  in  turn  sold  it  to  the  young  Empress  Eugenie,  then  in 
the  height  of  her  beauty  and  power  and  avid  of  jewels.  It  weighed 
93  grains,  or  2Zl/2  karats,  and  was  not  only  gem  in  color,  but  of  a 
lovely  lustre.  It  has  always  been  called  the  Tiffany  Queen  Pearl, 
at  once  the  pearl  of  the  queen,  and  queen  of  pearls — at  least  pink 
ones.  At  the  present  time  it  would  be  worth  $10,000. 


The  hunger  for  gems,  like  the  lust  for  gold,  has  always  been 
a  potent  factor  in  the  discovery,  conquest  and  settlement  of  dis- 
tant lands.  Columbus,  Cortes,  Balboa,  when  they  sighted  the  Orino- 
co, Peru,  Panama,  each  had  an  eye  out  for  emeralds  and  pearls.  So 
did  Vasco  di  Gama,  and  farther  back  still,  no  less  a  personage 
than  Julius  Caesar.  The  pearl,  that  elusive  gem  called  Margarita, 
so  coveted  by  every  Roman  dame,  quite  as  much  as  mere  personal 
ambition,  is  said  to  have  lured  Caesar  to  Britain.  It  was  he,  not 
some  humble  fisherman,  who  valued  at  its  worth  the  first  fresh- 
water pearl,  which  centuries  later  responded  all  too  well  to  So- 
ciety's thirst  for  ornament.  For  already  is  there  danger  of  the 
total  destruction  of  the  mussel,  so  carelessly  has  it  been  handled  by 
those  intent  on  its  hidden  treasures.  Like  many  another  before  them, 
they  forget  that  they  are  daily  killing  the  goose  that  lays  the 
golden  egg.  Even  an  inoffensive  bivalve,  if  its  enemies  are  too  ac- 
tive and  many,  is  capable  of  extinction. 

While  the  ideal  pearl  is  white,  it  is  not  an  intense  white,  but 
one  with  a  warm,  almost  yellowish  tone,  like  certain  beautiful 
teeth,  with  which  they  are  often  compared.  Or  silvery,  moonlight 
white,  "la  gran  Margherita,"  as  Dante  calls  it.  The  chalky  white, 
without  lustre,  which  by  reason  of  the  present  extreme  demand  has 
a  market,  is  not  to  be  compared  to  the  other,  though  it  may  be 
perfect  in  shape.  While  the  public  is  not  yet  so  familiar  with  their 
defects,  there  is  just  as  much  difference  between  pearls  as  dia- 
monds, and  their  value  goes  up  and  down  accordingly.  But  a  well- 
matched  string  of  large,  round,  lustrous  pearls  is  far  more  difficult 
of  attainment  than  a  similar  quality  of  diamonds,  and  nowhere  in 
the  world  are  purchasers  so  keen  on  perfection  as  in  the  United 
States. 

Women  affect  pearls,  for  one  thing,  because,  if  brunette,  there 
is  no  jewel  more  becoming,  the  contrast  between  the  dark  hair  and 
eyes,  if  the  teeth  are  good,  and  the  creamy  spheres,  whether  on 
neck,  hair,  or  ears,  being  peculiarly  engaging.  With  a  blonde  they 
are  less  in  harmony,  but  what  type  will  be  deterred  by  a  little  thing 
like  that,  if  fashion  leads  her  on?  Americans,  for  a  long  time, 
were  indifferent  to  the  pearl — which  some  think  the  finest  jewel 
flower  of  a  high  civilization ;  but  a  few  years  ago,  the  madness  seized 
them.  They  paused  in  the  rush  for  diamonds  long  enough  to  annex 
loads  of  these  frail  gems  of  the  ocean,  and  now  every  one  in  So- 
ciety, whether  her  beauty  is  enhanced  thereby  or  not,  must  have  her 
"string."  Held  almost  exclusively  by  the  aristocracy,  the  common 
people  have  passed  them  by.  Their  reserved  charm  is  not  for  the 
business  suit  or  cotton  gown,  but  for  the  adornment  of  those  who  do 
not  toil. 

Yet  the  Queen  of  England  fails  to  wear  them  well,  as  a  recent 
picture,  crowded  with  ornament,  but  too  plainly  shows.  Nor  does 
many  a  possessor  of  wealth  untold,  who  uses  them,  string  upon 
string,  like  potentates  dethroned,  for  vain  display.  Pearls  accord 
only  with  elegant  simplicity;  they  cry  out  for  the  severity  of  a 
classic  neck,  crowned  with  dark  abundant  hair,  above  unadorned 

99 


white  satin  or  black  velvet;  pearl  owners  need  lessons  in  tailoring 
not  less  than  in  "type."  No  gem  is  more  becoming  to  the  Orientals, 
with  their  white  teeth,  coffee-colored  skins  and  midnight  eyes, 
and  in  India  the  men  wear  them  too,  at  least  the  Gaikwars  and 
Maharajahs,  who  affix  them  like  the  artists  they  often  are. 

The  price  of  a  large,  lustrous,  Oriental  pearl  is  much  above  its 
mate  in  diamonds,  not  only  because  the  demand  just  now  is  great, 
but  because  a  pearl  cannot  be  cut  to  order.  It  may  be  doctored  and 
improved  a  bit,  or  cunningly  set  to  hide  defects,  but  its  absolute 
worth  is  almost  exclusively  up  to  the  mollusc !  If,  like  many  human 
laborers,  he  is  careless  or  lazy,  or  if  an  accident  to  his  jeweled 
mansion  lets  in  the  winds  or  waves,  the  pearl  will  never  be  the 
joy  it  might  have  been  under  conditions  more  serene.  Few  have  any 
idea  how  rare  are  the  perfect.  Even  when  obtained,  they  often 
prove  disappointing — are  easily  discolored  by  fire,  damaged  by 
rough  handling,  losing  lustre  through  cold  or  neglect,  while  a  child 
can  reduce  them  to  powder.  Like  the  opal,  the  pearl  is  sensitive  to 
low  temperatures,  and  its  lustre  marvelously  improved  by  the 
warmth  of  the  body.  To  the  economist,  which  the  woman  grown 
rich  through  man's  labor  generally  is  not,  it  seems  absurd  to  invest 
fortunes  in  such  a  perishable  object  when,  unlike  the  diamond, 
the  pearl  is  becoming  only  to  those  who  as  a  rule  cannot  afford 
them — the  young. 

The  native  who,  clutching  emerald  or  jade,  sold  pearls  to  the 
white  man  for  a  song,  rated  them  at  their  physical  worth.  Yet 
he  soon  became  sophisticated,  observing  the  stranger's  inexplicable 
appetite  for  their  frail  charm.  He  still  readily  lets  them  go,  not  for 
broken  glass,  however,  but  for  their  weight  over  and  over  in  gold. 

It  is  said  that  the  pearl,  as  a  jewel,  is  not  ancient — not  much 
older  than  the  Christian  era.  Many  contend  that  it  was  not  mentioned 
in  the  Old  Testament,  supposed  to  have  been  completed  400  B.  C., 
the  confusion  in  gem  nomenclature  between  the  ancients  and  mod- 
erns accounting  for  such  reference  when  occurring.  Pearls  were 
not  worn  to  any  extent  till  the  extravagance  of  the  Romans  caused 
them  to  scour  land  and  water,  the  mountain  and  the  desert,  for  their 
personal  adornment. 

There  is  Cleopatra  with  her  pearl,  of  course,  Clodius  with  his, 
and  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  flattering  Queen  Elizabeth,  a  long  way 
after,  with  his;  but  doesn't  it  seem  stupid  rather  than  interesting 
to  swallow  a  pearl  like  a  pill,  simply  to  invent  a  new  extravagance  ? 
They  must  have  been  taken  whole  or  in  the  form  of  powder,  for  it 
has  been  proved  that  pearl  will  not  dissolve  in  either  vinegar  or  wine 
— its  matrix  at  least,  soft  but  insoluble,  remains.  As  the  only  pos- 
sible excuse  for  such  an  action  must  be  its  spontaneity,  the  direct 
result  of  the  intoxication  of  the  moment,  modern  scientists  make 
Cleopatra  and  her  imitators  seem  calculating  rather  than  impas- 
sioned. 

Imitations  in  fish-scale  are  often  so  good  that  many  honest 
people  may  be  pardoned  for  preferring  the  comely  false  to  the 
ugly  real.  Strong  glass  is  blown  out,  lined  close  to  the  surface 

100 


with  a  composition,  invented  by  the  French,  made  from  the  scales 
of  the  bleak  fish,  and  the  bead  filled  with  wax.  While  lighter  in 
weight  than  true  pearl,  its  lustre  is  often  so  much  more  perfect  than 
any  save  the  rarest  pearls  as  to  deceive  completely.  Few  can  tell 
the  difference  when  on  the  ear  or  around  the  neck,  for  average  pearl 
is  often  far  from  attractive  in  either  color,  lustre  or  shape,  and 
might  easily  be  taken  for  an  inferior  substance,  while  the  imitation 
seeks  to  reproduce  only  the  gem  quality.  The  fish-scale  is  not  the 
ordinary  glass  bead,  sold  in  gilt  mounting  for  a  few  cents,  nor  the 
so-called  "Roman"  pearl,  made  of  something  not  unlike  candy.  A 
pair  of  ear-screws  set  in  solid  gold,  brings  near  ten  dollars,  while 
necklaces  often  cost  three  or  four  hundred. 

There  are  imitations  of  black  pearl  in  coal,  fine  spheres  of  lovely 
tone  and  lustre,  almost  more  beautiful  than  the  real,  except  the  finest 
specimens. 

Cattelle  tells  of  a  wonderful  pearl  necklace,  worn  by  the  Count- 
ess Henckel,  which  for  value  and  associations  is  unrivalled.  It  is 
composed  of  three  strands,  each  at  one  time  being  separate.  One 
was  the  famous  string  of  the  Empress  Eugenie,  valued  at  $100,000 ; 
another  "the  necklace  of  the  Virgin  of  Atokha,"  formerly  owned 
by  a  member  of  the  Spanish  nobility ;  the  third  belonged  to  the  ex- 
Queen  of  Naples.  But,  for  actual  value,  the  writer  continues,  this  is 
exceeded  by  a  single  strand,  lately  bought  by  a  millionaire  of  our 
western  states,  composed  of  thirty-seven  pearls,  varying  from 
18  to  53%  grains  each,  the  combined  weight  979%  grains,  or  267 1/2 
karats,  appraised  at  $400,000.  The  Empress  Eugenie's  celebrated 
necklace  of  matchless  black  pearls  sold  at  Christie's  in  London  for 
$20,000,  after  the  removal  of  the  pearl  forming  the  clasp,  for  which 
the  Marquis  of  Bath  paid  $5,000,  and  which  sold  later  for  over 
$7,000,  as  the  chief  ornament  of  a  bracelet. 

Not  all  pearls  called  black  are  what  they  claim.  The  ideal 
is  what  black  should  be,  without  metallic  lustre  or  polished  shine. 
It  is  neither  gray  nor  brown,  but  true  black,  soft,  dense,  exquisite, 
the  loveliest  of  all  black  gems,  perhaps  the  loveliest  of  all  gem  pearls. 

The  "orient"  is  that  lively  lustre  that  almost  sparkles  in  the 
light,  of  which  the  most  beautiful  pearl  in  the  world,  La  Pellegrina, 
now  in  the  Museum  of  Zosimo,  Moscow,  is  a  shining  example.  It  is 
an  East  Indian  product,  perfectly  round,  incomparably  lustrous  and 
weighs  about  28  karats.  No  pearl  is  more  famous. 

In  course  of  time  all  pearls,  like  all  mankind,  die.  That  is, 
they  lose  their  beauty,  if  they  do  not  actually  crumble  to  dust.  The 
life  of  a  pearl  depends  somewhat  on  its  own  nature,  somewhat  on 
the  care  it  receives,  but  at  best  its  span  is  extremely  short.  Scarcely 
an  attractive  pearl  in  existence  is  three  centuries  old,  and  many  fade 
almost  as  quickly  as  their  owners.  Careless  handling,  atmospheric 
changes,  noxious  gases,  intense  heat  injure  the  pearl  as  much  as  the 
child.  Woe  to  the  pearls  taken  to  incompetent  workmen  for  repairs. 
Instantly  a  beautiful  gem  may  be  converted  by  fire  into  a  dead 
thing,  discolored  and  forlorn.  Nor  is  the  safe  deposit  box  a  good 
place  for  them.  Like  cigars,  they  need,  for  their  best  health,  a  moist 

101 


atmosphere.  Always  in  storage  a  damp  sponge  should  be  placed  with 
them. 

No  wonder  many  believe  the  pearl  both  lives  and  dies.  The 
chemical  changes  that  insensibly  take  place  in  its  constitution  are 
appalling.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  as  if  its  body  sickened,  and  its 
soul  passed  away.  One  can  understand  how  more  credulous  genera- 
tions believed  that  pearls  brought  tears.  They  do,  in  a  sense,  even 
to  this  hour. 

Yet  the  pearl  was  not  always  significant  of  ill-luck,  as  are 
shown  by  some  lines  of  Browning,  who  ought  to  know,  being  a  poet, 
the  magic  of  a  gem: 

A  simple  ring,  with  a  single  stone, 

To  the  vulgar  eye,  no  stone  of  price ; 

Whisper  the  right  word,  that  alone — 

Forth  starts  a  sprite,  like  fire  from  ice, 

And  lo,  you  are  lord   (says  an  Eastern  scroll) 

Of  Heaven  and  earth,  lord  whole  and  sole, 

Through  the  power  in  a  pearl! 

The  pearl  is  the  one  jewel  in  history  connected  with  sorrow. 
All  else  were  coveted  by  the  great  majority  less  for  their  beauty 
than  their  benign  mystical  influences.  But  the  pearl  as  the  herald 
of  woe  was  feared  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and  down  even  to 
our  time.  The  night  before  her  husband's  assassination  the  wife 
of  Henry  IV.  of  France  dreamed  her  diamonds  were  turned  to 
pearls.  Three  nights  in  succession  before  the  battle  of  Flodden 
Field,  which  made  her  a  widow,  the  wife  of  James  IV.  of  Scotland 
dreamed  of  pearls.  There  are  women  to-day,  foolish  maybe,  who 
are  afraid  to  wear  a  pearl.  One  such  says  the  day  has  never 
dawned  when  she  could  put  one  on  without  trouble  closely  follow- 
ing. Pearls  spell  tears. 

Though  unmistakably  the  herald  of  sorrow,  the  pearl  at  the 
same  time  stands  for  purity  and  innocence,  and  is,  therefore,  appro- 
priate for  the  young.  It  is  the  alternate  natal  stone  for  February 
and  June.  Some  mothers  give  their  daughters  a  pearl  for  each 
birthday,  and  finally  string  them  into  a  strand  which  charms,  de- 
spite its  hint  of  accummulated  misfortune.  Yet,  while  pleasing  to 
the  girls  and  the  jewelers,  such  may  become  an  inconvenient  wit- 
ness to  the  flight  of  time,  unless  one  is  careful  to  lose  a  few,  or 
ceases  the  collection  suddenly. 

"The  high  value  attached  to  the  pearl  by  the  ancient  Hebrews  is 
illustrated  by  a  beautiful  Rabbinical  story  in  which  only  one  object 
in  nature  is  ranked  above  them,"  says  that  repository  of  rare  knowl- 
edge, "The  Book  of  the  Pearl,"  from  whose  influence  it  is  difficult 
to  break  away : 

102 


On  approaching  Egypt,  Abraham  hid  Sarah  in  a  chest,  that 
foreign  eyes  might  not  behold  her  beauty.  When  he  reached  the 
place  for  paying  custom  dues,  the  collector  said :  'Pay  us  the  custom' ; 
and  he  replied,  'I  will  pay  your  custom.'  They  said  to  him,  'Thou 
earnest  clothes';  and  he  stated,  'I  will  pay  for  clothes.'  Then  they 
said  to  him,  'Thou  earnest  gold' ;  and  he  answered,  'I  will  pay  for  gold.' 
On  this  they  said  to  him,  'surely  thou  bearest  the  finest  silk'  and  he 
replied  'I  will  pay  custom  for  the  finest  silk.'  Then  said  they,  'Truly 
it  must  be  pearls  that  thou  takest  with  thee' ;  and  he  answered,  'I  will 
pay  for  pearls.'  Seeing  that  they  could  name  nothing  of  value  for  which 
the  patriarch  was  not  willing  to  pay  custom,  they  said,  'It  cannot  be 
but  that  thou  open  the  box  and  let  us  see  what  is  within.'  So  the 
chest  was  opened,  and  the  land  was  illumined  by  the  light  of  Sarah's 
beauty. 


103 


ARTIFICIAL  REPRODUCTION. 


The  diamond  and  the  ruby,  king  and  queen  of  gems,  are  the 
simplest  in  construction,  the  diamond  pure  carbon,  the  ruby  pure 
alumina ;  both  the  commonest  of  all  things  in  nature ;  for  alumina  is 
an  earth  always  under  our  feet,  and  carbon  we  expel  with  every 
breath. 

Any  chemist  can  tell  of  what  diamond  is  composed,  and  where 
to  find  the  ingredients,  yet  no  one  has  been  able  to  reproduce  it 
artificially,  except  in  such  minute  imperfect  crystals  as  to  travesty 
nature. 

They  are  imitated,  though,  so  skillfully  that  by  evening  light 
experts  themselves,  if  not  able  to  handle  them,  are  sometimes  de- 
ceived, but  a  few  weeks  wear  is  apt  to  render  the  finest  quality  of 
rhinestones  flat  and  dull.  Exposed  to  the  air,  with  its  accompanying 
moisture,  some  chemical  change  takes  place.  Rock  crystal  is  in  time 
subject  to  this  change.  White  sapphire  and  topaz  withstand  it, 
but  they  have  no  prismatic  play.  Colorless  zircon  only,  in  a  faint 
degree,  presents  to  the  end  the  diamond's  distinct  charm. 

Experiments  in  the  artificial  reproduction  of  corundum,  or 
ruby,  were  begun  by  Gaudin  in  1837;  Ebelmen  continued  them  in 
1852;  but  it  was  the  lately  deceased  Fremy  who  made  the  greatest 
strides,  and  who  at  last,  in  connection  with  Feil  and  Verneuil, 
reached  results  which  eventually  were  to  have  an  important  bear- 
ing on  the  trade.  While  the  crystallization  of  alumina  had  gone  on 
for  years,  it  was  not  till  the  period  from  1877  to  1890,  when  these 
men  took  hold,  that  it  assumed  anything  like  industrial  proportions. 
The  first  successful  ruby  crystals  were  so  infinitesimal  that  their 
angles  had  to  be  observed  through  the  microscope.  This  revealed 
them  attached  to  a  foundation  of  amorphous  alumina  upon  which 
they  sparkled  like  crimson  frost-work. 

Oddly  enough,  in  the  early  eighties  a  Swiss  priest,  who  lived 
in  seclusion  near  Geneva,  seems  to  have  forestalled  Fremy,  so  far 
as  commercial  expression  goes.  This  man  of  God  was  the  first 
to  place  "reconstructed"  rubies  on  the  market,  and  by  the  scientific 
process  of  crystallization.  Some  have  contended  that  the  product 
was  accomplished  by  fusion,  generally  resulting  in  a  lighter  and 
softer  stone,  but  Emil  Freund  asserts  that  close  examination  proves 
them  to  be  actual  ruby,  formed  by  heat  and  duly  crystallized,  only 
showing  through  the  lens,  by  spherical  or  pear-shaped  bubbles,  their 
human  origin.  These  gems  were  delivered  in  the  rough  to  a  lapi- 
dary in  Geneva  whence,  after  cutting,  they  reached  America  in 
1886.  Some  were  small  and  inferior,  unfit  even  for  mechanical 
purposes,  but  others  sold  high  as  $150  a  karat  and  were  brilliant  as 

104 


the  finest  Burmese  gems.  A  few  of  them  are  still  to  be  found  in 
possession  of  dealers  and  connoisseurs,  but  the  secret  of  the  process 
was  lost  in  the  death  of  the  inventor,  though  the  present  output 
seems  to  have  been  constructed  on  the  same  principle. 

In  1889  some  "scientific"  rubies  were  imported  by  a  New 
York  firm.  They  were  examples  of  the  old  Indian  cut,  and  were 
here  recut  in  modern  style,  but  when  examined  by  the  Columbia 
School  of  Mines,  were  found  to  be  fused  from  natural  rubies. 
While  not  crystallized,  like  the  true  stone,  they  were  somehow  even 
harder  than  the  genuine,  which  yields  to  nothing  save  the  diamond. 
All  were  of  fine  color  and  quality  and  were  sold  from  $60  to  $150 
per  karat. 

The  secret  of  the  "reconstruction"  of  rubies,  through  the  failure 
of  several  companies  to  exploit  it,  finally  became  the  property  of  the 
public,  and  is  now  successfully  carried  on,  by  means  of  Paquier's 
ingenious  apparatus,  and  the  improved  Verneuil  process.  They 
were,  and  still  are,  made  in  great  quantities,  and  their  price,  through 
competition,  has  depreciated  in  the  rough  from  dollars  to  cents. 
These  Paquier  rubies,  first  given  to  the  public  in  1901,  constructed 
in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  crystallization,  by  a  process  and  instru- 
ment so  simple  that  one  wonders  it  was  never  thought  of  before, 
are  physically,  chemically,  and  optically  identical  with  natural  rubies, 
says  the  eminent  French  geologist  Lacroix ;  though  Pinier,  the  lead- 
ing gem  expert  of  Paris,  declares  that  the  false  can  always  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  true  by  the  lens.  The  shape  of  the  "inclusions," 
so  prominent  a  characteristic  of  natural  ruby,  will  invariably  in 
the  artificial  be  found  uniform  instead  of  irregular,  while  the  planes 
of  crystallization  are  not  always  discernible. 

Reconstructed  rubies  frequently  find  their  way  to  Burmah, 
where  they  are  sold  in  the  bazaars,  perhaps  innocently,  as  the  true, 
often  returning  to  Europe  in  company  with  the  native  gems,  the 
most  desired  of  all  rubies  in  the  world. 

A  canny  Scotchman  was  congratulating  himself  on  the  won- 
derful bargain  he  had  made  at  Mandalay.  It  was  a  stone  of  perhaps 
five  karats,  for  which  fifty  dollars  was  asked,  but  fifteen  taken. 
Beside  a  remarkable  garnet  of  the  same  size,  it  looked  not  so 
unlike  it,  almost  as  dark,  if  more  brilliant.  The  reconstructed  rubies 
first  on  the  market  were  dark,  sometimes  brownish,  and  greatly 
resembled  garnets,  though  recently  the  improvement  in  both  color 
and  brilliance  has  been  marked.  Now  they  are  apt  to  suggest  the 
pink  tourmaline,  with  its  true  ruby  shade,  rather  than  the  garnet. 

Under  the  microscope  the  natural  ruby  shows  minute  cracks 
or  cleavages  running  through  the  stone,  while  the  reconstructed  re- 
veals bubbles  or  gas-holes,  caused  by  the  cooling  process,  despite 
every  effort  to  make  this  very  gradual.  As  in  all  artificial  products, 
the  lens  betrays  very  regular  clouds  and  inclusions,  while  the  natural, 
according  to  Nature's  universal  law,  is  exceedingly  irregular.  Still, 
it  must  be  remembered,  a  reconstructed  ruby  is  not  exactly  a  false 
ruby,  simply  a  reproduction,  through  scientific  knowledge  and  ex- 
periment, of  the  true.  But  the  value  of  such  is  not  a  tenth  of  the 

105 


Burmese  gem,  though  the  price  of  the  latter  has  come  down  there- 
by. Never  can  the  fact  be  controverted  that  the  counterfeit  is  made 
in  a  few  days  or  weeks,  while  the  true  is  the  true — the  product  of 
centuries,  if  not  aeons,  of  God's  own  methods. 

Though  highly  satisfactory  to  the  eye,  artificial  sapphires  are 
not  intrinsically  so  perfect  as  artificial  rubies.  They  are  fused,  not 
crystallized,  and  their  origin  can  be  detected  easily.  Chemically 
precisely  the  same,  except  in  coloring  matter,  the  ruby  seems  to 
assist  the  scientists,  the  sapphire  to  resist  them.  Sapphires  are 
made  by  Louis  Paris,  through  a  process  which  differs  from  ruby 
in  the  substitution  of  the  blue  of  cobalt  for  the  red  of  chromium, 
and  the  mixture  of  lime,  to  prevent  separation,  as  against  calcined 
alum,  which  does  not  interfere  with  the  desired  crystallization. 
Emil  Freund  says  the  latest  reconstructed  sapphires  are  identical 
with  the  real  in  every  respect,  but  Victor  Barton  denies  this,  de- 
claring that  not  only  in  fusion  as  compared  with  crystallization,  but 
in  chemical  composition,  density  and  hardness,  they  are  not,  like 
the  ruby,  quite  the  same  as  the  true  gem.  When  doctors  disagree, 
who  shall  decide? 

In  the  earlier  process  of  artificial  reconstruction,  ruby  consisted 
of  a  small  crystal  of  silicate  of  alumina,  corundum  in  its  valueless 
form,  colored  by  bichromate  of  potash,  kept  at  a  certain  tempera- 
ture by  rotation  at  very  high  speed.  To  this  central  mass  was  fed 
small  particles  of  natural  ruby  till  a  large  bead  formed.  While  this 
was  liable  to  crack  or  break  when  cooled,  often  it  was  a  great  suc- 
cess, identical  with  the  true  stone  in  hardness,  weight  and  composi- 
tion. Yet  in  color  it  used  to  come  out  dark,  and  was  also  full  of 
bubbles  and  wavy,  circular  lines,  due  to  the  rotary  motion,  deceiv- 
ing the  amateur  perhaps,  but  never  the  expert. 

By  the  Paquier  process,  the  apparatus  slightly  resembling  a 
hopper,  everything  is  more  simple.  The  melted  alumina  passes 
through  a  fine  sieve  and  slender  tube  into  a  position  more  or  less 
stationary,  though  it  can  be  manipulated  by  human  hands.  The  re- 
sult is  crystallization  something  after  the  manner  of  Nature.  Every 
day  the  method  is  becoming  more  and  more  exact,  so  that  none  can 
afford  to  be  skeptical  as  to  the  ultimate  moment,  the  possible  final 
perfection. 

Some  of  the  specimens  are  already  excellent,  fully  equal  to  a  fine 
pink  tourmaline,  the  ruby's  nearest  neighbor  in  light  and  color,  but 
it  seems  unlikely  that  mere  man  will  ever  be  able  to  approach  the 
incomparable  tint,  vitality  and  fire  of  the  pigeon's  blood. 

The  trouble  is  that  unscrupulous  men  not  only  sometimes  sell 
the  reconstructed,  the  synthetic,  as  the  true,  but  also  glass  imita- 
tions, more  dazzling  than  the  scientific  at  first,  which  increasing 
deception  of  the  innocent  is  suggesting  special  legislation  for  the 
purchaser's  protection. 

There  is  a  wide  difference  between  real  stones  made  by  man, 
known  to  the  public  comparatively  recently,  and  the  imitation, 
usually  of  glass,  in  vogue  for  twenty  centuries.  Pastes  are  as  old  as 
the  Christian  era,  and  doublets  have  held  a  conspicuous  if  not  hon- 

106 


ored  rank  for  several  decades,  at  first  with  a  slice  of  the  true  stone 
cemented  to  a  colored  glass  bottom,  then  with  rock  crystal  perform- 
ing the  same  office.  The  base  of  all  modern  pastes  is  strass,  a  strong, 
hard,  brilliant  glass,  invented  by  Strass  of  Strassburg. 

Corundum  is  the  only  substance  yet  responding  to  reconstruc- 
tion. Emerald  still  defies  strenuous  efforts  in  this  line,  and  is  found 
only  in  doublets  or  glass.  Turquoise,  which  seems  hardly  a  stone, 
reappears  in  a  sort  of  enamel,  not  the  least  successful  of  sterling 
imitations ;  topaz  masquerades  in  an  inferior  material,  yellow  quartz, 
occasionally  in  doublets  and  frequently  in  strass;  while  beryl,  peri- 
dot, garnet,  amethyst,  tourmaline,  and  such  opaque  stones  as  jade 
and  rhodonite,  comparatively  abundant,  encourage  only  frank  imita- 
tions. The  beauty  of  the  zircon  is  so  little  known  or  appreciated 
that  commerce  passes  it  by,  and  it  seems  impossible  to  reincarnate 
successfully  the  restless,  exquisite  opal.  Yet  already  the  strange 
alexandrite,  a  stone  apparently  protected  by  nature  from  falsity,  has 
been  approached  through  a  totally  different  medium,  the  sapphire. 
A  stone  supposed  to  be  a  rare  but  real  alexandrite,  amethyst  by  day 
and  pink  tourmaline  by  night,  both  colors  the  best  of  their  kind,  is 
pronounced  by  Dr.  Kunz  an  artificial  sapphire,  more  hard,  brilliant 
and  beautiful  than  the  true — a  triumph  of  man,  if  the  diagnosis  is 
correct ;  one  instance  of  Nature  outdone ! 

The  pearl  is  imitated  almost  perfectly.  So  far  as  beauty  goes, 
the  fish-scale  article,  by  a  secret  process,  known  only  to  the  French, 
is  often  more  lustrous  than  any  save  the  finest  Oriental,  with  its 
lovely  texture  and  mellow  sheen.  If  one  were  to  adopt  any  artificial 
product,  it  might  be  justifiable  in  the  case  of  this  particular  substance, 
not  a  mineral  at  all,  simply  an  organic  product,  often  ugly,  always 
frail,  and  costly  beyond  reason  and  belief. 

Still,  those  who  care  for  integrity  in  either  precious  stones  01 
human  beings  instinctively  scorn  deceit,  however  clever.  No  ma- 
chine-made specimen  of  these  flowers  of  the  mineral  world  can 
possibly  command  the  sentiment  of  one  brought  forth  by  the  Eternal 
Mother.  To  lovers  of  gems  for  their  own  sake,  the  defective  true 
is  infinitely  preferable  to  the  perfect  false. 


107 


METHODS  OF  TESTING  STONES. 


Hardness  of  gems,  decided  according  to  an  arbitrary  scale 
ranging  from  1  to  10,  is  determined  in  various  ways:  to  a  certain 
extent  by  the  file;  by  one  gem  scratching  a  lower  in  the  scale;  but 
professionally  by  four  "points"  of  varying  penetration,  manufactured 
for  mineralogists  and  jewelers. 

Specific  gravity,  or  the  weight  of  gems,  not  the  weight  for 
trade  purposes  by  karats,  but  the  heaviness  as  related  to  others  of 
its  kind,  is  obtained  usually  by  three  out  of  six  tubes,  containing 
liquid  of  varying  density.  For  all  practical  purposes  only  three  are 
needed,  numbers  4,  5  and  6,  but  for  rare  cases  there  are  1,  2  and  3. 
Methylene  iodide  is  put  into  three  portions,  more  in  4  than  5  and 
still  less  in  6.  4  is  left  pure ;  5  and  6  have  their  density  proportionally 
reduced  by  adding  benzine  drop  by  drop,  until  the  indicators  are 
in  position,  one  at  the  top,  the  other  at  the  bottom.  The  liquid  must 
be  mixed  thoroughly  with  a  glass  rod.  Then  the  stone  is  weighed 
both  in  air  and  in  these  heavy  fluids,  the  difference  in  weight  be- 
tween the  two  mediums,  after  mathematical  working  out,  determin- 
ing the  specific  gravity  accurately. 

But,  if  by  any  chance  two  stones  of  the  same  general  appearance 
should  be  of  the  same  weight  and  hardness,  there  are  still  other 
tests,  the  most  effective  being  the  dichroscope,  an  inexpensive  little 
instrument,  in  appearance  a  sort  of  tiny  telescope,  which  separates 
the  rays  of  light  and  determines  whether  a  stone  is  monochroic  or 
dichroic,  that  is,  with  only  one  color  under  analysis  or  several. 

The  refractometer  is  another  instrument,  disclosing  the  degree 
of  refraction,  or  bending  of  light,  not  commonly  used,  except  by 
mineralogists. 

With  a  little  practice,  any  jeweler,  and  even  his  customers,  can 
learn  to  make  these  tests.  It  should  be  a  congenial  task,  these  deli- 
cate but  not  very  difficult  experiments,  for  the  deft  hands  of  women. 
That  women  of  intelligence  could  become  authoritative  experts  on 
gems,  if  so  disposed,  is  practically  certain.  Above  all,  women  are 
far  more  accurate  than  men  in  their  sense  of  color. 

The  more  complicated  tests  are  for  troublesome  cases,  and  not 
all,  as  a  rule,  are  necessary.  The  "points,"  or  even  the  jeweler's 
file,  if  backed  by  experience,  throw  considerable  light,  while  the  di- 
chroscope, in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  will  settle  the  question. 

Then,  the  constant  handling  of  gems,  aided  by  the  alert  mind, 
brings  its  own  instruction.  The  mere  look  or  feel  of  a  stone  is  be- 
trayal to  the  connoisseur,  and  when  the  lens  also  is  applied,  the  truth 
can  be  obtained  very  nearly.  But  this  as  to  the  better  known  stones 

108 


only,  for  many  a  jeweler  who  cannot  be  deceived  on  diamond,  ruby 
or  sapphire,  will  be  doubtful  about  emerald,  and  fall  down  complete- 
ly before  the  less  familiar  objects,  such  as  spinel,  zircon,  yellow  beryl, 
green  garnet,  and  even  true  topaz,  whose  name  has  been  borrowed 
by  citrine. 

With  the  aid  of  these  tests,  all  problems  can  be  solved,  for  it  is 
simply  a  question  of  cold  fact,  about  which  there  can  be  no  dispute, 
though  the  more  ways  in  which  a  conclusion  can  be  reached,  the 
more  certain  it  will  be,  as  compared  to  a  single  trial. 

The  very  latest  practicable  test,  which  is  said  to  be  simple  and 
absolutely  sure,  comes  through  the  microspectroscope,  by  means  of 
light  alone.  This  instrument  has  been  brought  to  perfection  by  Dr. 
Edgar  T.  Wherry,  assistant  curator  of  the  Division  of  Mineralogy  in 
the  United  States  National  Museum,  and  it  is  claimed  that  the 
instrument  makes  all  others  unnecessary.  A  pamphlet  recently  pub- 
lished by  the  Smithsonian  Institution  describes  the  system  worked 
out  by  Dr.  Wherry  in  a  technical  manner  which  appeals  to  the  scien- 
tific student  particularly. 

By  this  method  the  spectrum  plays  the  star  part,  all  precious 
stones  and  their  counterfeits  are  amenable  to  its  influence,  and  that 
they  can  be  tested  without  removal  from  their  settings  is  interesting 
to  say  the  least. 


109 


Why  did  not  somebody  teach  me  the  Constellations,  and  make 
me  at  home  in  the  starry  heavens,  which  are  always  overhead  and 
I  don't  half  know  to  this  day? 

Thomas  Carlyle. 


1 10 


GEMS  IN  THE  SKY. 


A  SUGGESTION. 

Astronomy  as  a  science  is  almost  pure  mathematics,  but  pic- 
torially  it  is  a  cosmic  marvel  and  poem.  The  skies  are  so  infinitely 
lovely  that  one  can  scarcely  believe  they  really  exist!  They  should 
become  a  near  and  dear  part  of  every  human  being.  But  mere  read- 
ing cannot  accomplish  this.  By  that  road  you  will  never  be  able 
to  say:  "Those  are  the  Pleiades,  these  are  the  Hyades,  that  fine 
star  is  Denebola,  dancing  attendance  on  Berenice's  Hair."  One  by 
one  you  must  reverently  seek  and  find  them ;  but  to  know  them  once 
is  to  know  them  for  all  time — like  the  swimmer's  stroke,  it  never  is 
forgotten. 

Home  from  the  mountains  one  September  long  ago,  depressed 
that  I  scarcely  knew  one  star  from  another,  a  book  of  blessed  dia- 
grams fell  into  my  hands  and  I  went  to  work  in  earnest.  Yet  cran- 
ing neck  out  of  windows,  rushing  wildly  into  the  street  to  gaze 
upward  till  pedestrians  stopped  and  gazed  with  me ;  reading  at  corner 
lamps  till  everybody  turned  and  stared — this  had  its  drawbacks. 
Suddenly  I  thought  of  that  common  retreat  in  an  Oriental  home — 
the  roof.  Drawing  a  bolt,  1  climbed  steep  steps,  lifted  a  heavy 
scuttle,  fell  on  an  expanse  of  tin — and  found  myself  in  heaven.  Star 
upon  star  unseen  below  responded  to  my  appeal,  and  altogether  it 
was  a  royal  welcome  from 

That  inverted  bowl  they  call  the  sky 
Whereunder  crawling  coopt  we  live  and  die. 

To  compare  the  diagram  with  the  real  thing  took  endless  trips 
down  and  back  again,  there  was  many  a  seance  on  the  roof  before 
conjecture  became  certainty,  but  come  the  understanding  did  at  last 
and  to  stay. 

Given  the  Great  Dipper,  the  rest,  if  you  care,  is  comparatively 
easy.  Although  I  had  discovered  Vega  directly  overhead  and  in 
the  west  Arcturus,  that  favorite  of  Peary  who  in  the  lonely  Arctic 
watched  it  circling  far  to  the  south  of  him,  the  wider  outlook  of 
the  roof  revealed  a  distinctly  foreign  star,  the  first-magnitude  Spica, 
in  Virgo,  glittering  close  to  the  southwest  horizon  before  leaving 
for  its  winter  home  in  the  tropics.  Vega,  in  Lyra,  is  believed  to  be 
the  centre  of  our  system ;  millions  of  years  hence  it  may  be  our  pole- 
star — instead  of  bright  Polaris,  so  much  more  truly  that,  in  its 
close  proximity  to  the  Pole,  than  those  insignificant  Antarctic 
worlds  in  like  situation.  The  Southern  Cross,  which  in  the  south 
sailors  depend  upon  to  steer  by,  is  nearly  thirty  degrees  from  the 

in 


Pole,  while  Polaris  is  practically  one  degree,  and  still  ap- 
proaching, so  that  in  two  centuries  it  will  be  less  by  half !  Polaris  is 
conspicuous  as  the  tip  of  the  Little  Dipper's  handle,  toward  which 
Alpha  and  Omega  in  the  bowl  of  the  Great  Dipper  always  point, 
as  do  the  eyes  of  every  northern  navigator  on  the  globe.  *  English 
captains  who  sail  the  Seven  Seas  refer  to  these  figures  by  their 
scientific  appellations  Ursa  Major  and  Minor,  Big  and  Little  Bear, 
not  seeming  to  recognize  the  interesting  dipper  figures,  though  ac- 
cepted by  every  school-boy  in  the  United  States. 

Across  the  Milky  Way  from  yega  is  another  of  first-magnitude, 
Altair,  in  Aquila,  the  Eagle,  easily  distinguished  by  a  faint  equi- 
distant star  on  either  hand,  while  slightly  northwest  of  Altair  is  that 
small  architectural  lozenge  called  Job's  Coffin.  Between  Altair  and 
Vega,  lying  in  the  Milky  Way,  which  greatly  enhances  its  splendor, 
with  head  pointing  north,  is  the  immense  Northern  Cross.  Many 
prefer  this  to  the  Southern  Cross  because  of  its  great  size  and  perfect 
symmetry,  though  of  its  eight  stars  there  is  but  one  bright  one — 
Deneb,  at  the  top.  A  line  drawn  from  Altair  to  Arcturus  passes 
through  the  Northern  Crown,  a  sparkling  diadem  of  five  small  stars 
with  a  larger  gem  appropriately  in  the  centre. 

South  of  Cassiopeia,  that  circumpolar  constellation  in  the  form 
of  an  open  W,  a  line  of  stars  leads  to  the  great  square  of  Pegasus, 
the  Flying  Horse,  the  whole  thing  not  unlike  a  deep,  long-handled 
sauce-pan.  You  can  also  witness  in  September  the  closing  mo- 
ments of  Scorpio,  which  soon  migrates,  like  the  birds,  to  the  south. 
It  is  easily  identified  by  its  stunning  first-magnitude  star  Antares, 
which  in  its  great  size  and  red  fire  rivals  the  planet  Mars — whence 
its  name,  anti-Mars.  East  of  Scorpio  you  run  against  Sagittarius, 
the  Archer,  six  of  whose  small  stars  form  an  inverted  dipper  per- 
fect in  shape  and  because  in  the  Milky  Way  known  as  the  Milk 
Dipper,  while  east  of  Sagittarius  you  can  distinguish  the  three  pairs 
of  small  stars  representing  the  head,  tail  and  knees  of  the  goat  in 
Capricorn,  and  still  farther  east  looming  above  the  horizon  is  Fomal- 
haut,  the  eighteenth  first-magnitude  on  the  list.  Near  Fomalhaut 
this  September  is  Jupiter,  glorious  as  Venus  at  her  best,  but  minus 
her  soft  golden  light — sharper,  more  electric,  more  masculine ! 

In  December  comes  the  greatest  display  of  all :  glorious  Orion, 
the  Mighty  Hunter,  one  mass  of  splendid  gems,  on  knee,  belt,  shoul- 
ders, and  along  his  sword ;  Aldebaran,  red  as  Antares,  in  the  head  of 
Taurus ;  Castor  and  Pollux,  the  Twins,  Procyon,  the  Dog  Star,  and 
Capella,  queen  of  pentagonal  Auriga — to  say  nothing  of  that  finest 
"Jager"  of  them  all,  blue-white  Sirius.  No  section  of  the  heavens 
from  Arctic  to  Antarctic  is  so  rich  and  dazzling.  In  February  this 
galaxy  will  be  followed  at  a  respectful  distance  by  Regulus,  in  Leo, 
sometimes  called  the  Lion's  Heart.  While  not  a  first-magnitude 
star,  Regulus  is  notably  beautiful  and  advantageously  set  in  the 
handle  of  one  of  the  most  perfect  figures  in  the  firmament,  the 
Sickle. 

Each  one  of  these  now  familiar  friends  I  annexed  laboriously, 
unable  to  get  for  love  or  money  any  aid  beyond  this  old-time  text- 

112 


book,  though  I  went  on  my  knees  to  uninterested  navigators,  pro- 
fessors, publishers  and  Uncle  Sam  himself,  who  wouldn't  sell !  The 
faithful  "Heavens  Above,"  by  J.  A.  Gillet  and  W.  J.  Rolfe,  published 
in  1882  by  Potter,  Ains worth  and  Company  of  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago, was  the  only  portable  thing  I  could  find  except  an  old-fash- 
ioned, fine-print  atlas  which  took  the  eyes  out  of  my  head.  But 
within  the  past  few  years  various  popular  volumes  have  appeared. 
Garrett  P.  Serviss'  "Astronomy  with  the  Naked  Eyes,"  Harper 
and  Brothers,  is  perhaps  the  best,  together  with  the  Barritt-Serviss 
movable  "Star  and  Planet-Finder,"  150  Nassau  Street.  Still,  I  have 
an  affection  for  my  own  little  out-of-print  book,  with  diagrams  in 
dotted  lines  from  star  to  star,  and  drawings  indicating  why  the 
constellations  are  named  as  they  are — a  good  thing  for  the  lone 
beginner.  r  •  f\ 

At  sea  one  can  appeal  to  the  skipper  for  information,  but  if  he 
hands  over  for  an  hour  his  valuable  charts,  you  may  find  yourself 
instructing  him — so  little  do  sailors  care  for  any  save  a  few  con- 
spicuous stars  to  steer  by. 

Around  the  world  I  went  to  the  Orient  with  its  thrilling  beauty 
of  sky  and  sea  and  shore.  There  the  stars  are  so  near  you  need 
only  stretch  out  your  hand  to  touch  them.  Some  of  the  loveliest 
moments  were  at  Kandy,  in  Ceylon,  when  simply  to  look  out  into 
the  night  was  pure  joy.  A  thick  mango  shaded  my  window  and 
beyond  along  the  lake  were  delicate  taller  trees  in  silhouette  against 
the  sky.  One  evening  the  lightning  played,  while  large  glow-worms 
rested  on  the  air.  As  music  drifted  out  from  the  hotel,  a  Cingalese 
in  white  drapery  paused  and  watched  the  gayety  within.  The  stars, 
the  silence,  the  fireflies,  the  lightning,  the  gleaming  water,  the  trop- 
ical tree,  the  motionless  figure  under  it  with  face  upturned,  the  pene- 
trating fragrance  of  the  sacred  champak  blossom,  so  much  like  our 
tuberose — cannot  you  see  it  all?  That  is  Ceylon — a  thing  not  to 
analyze  but  to  feel. 

Here  I  was  able  to  gratify  an  intense  desire — the  Southern 
Cross.  After  a  lifetime  of  longing  its  beauty  enchanted  me  for 
nights  together.  Between  midnight  and  dawn  I  had  only  to  open 
my  eyes  to  make  it  mine — this  marvelous  symbol  of  Christ's  love 
and  renunciation  describing  its  small  arc  around  the  Pole.  Even 
though  it  falls  short  of  perfection,  bereft  of  a  central  star  to  unite 
its  four  arms,  "Croce  Maravigliosa,"  as  Pigafetta  called  it,  is  a 
thing  of  supreme  loveliness  and  meaning.  Besides  its  four  spark- 
ling brilliants,  Alpha  at  the  base  one  of  the  largest  in  the  skies, 
there  is  within  its  diamond-shaped  quadrilateral  Herschel's  "gorge- 
ous piece  of  fancy  jewelry,"  that  nebulous  cluster  of  many-colored 
gems  about  which  astronomers  wrangle. 

Seven  years  later  I  again  found  myself  in  the  East,  a  bit 
ashamed  of  such  a  wanderlust  until  I  found  I  couldn't  help  it — 
that  on  a  certain  heraldic  device  I  have  the  right  to  use  are  the 
words:  "Per  mare,  per  terras."  The  ultima  thule  this  time  was 
the  island  of  Java,  whose  exotic  charm  Joseph  Conrad  expresses  in 
a  few  masterly  words ; 

"3 


I  have  seen  the  mysterious  shores,  the  still  waters,  the  lands 
of  brown  natives  .  .  .  but  for  me  all  the  East  is  contained  in 
the  vision  of  my  youth.  .  .  .  And  this  is  all  there  is  left  of  it! 
Only  a  moment ;  a  moment  of  strength,  and  romance,  and  glamour ! 
...  A  flick  of  sunshine  on  a  strange  shore,  the  time  to  remember, 
the  time  for  a  sigh — goodby! 

From  Batavia  we  started  for  Djogjakarta  at  4  A.  M.  Difficult 
it  is  to  get  the  eyes  open  at  that  hour,  but  the  Oriental  bath 
in  the  spring-house,  twenty  gourdfuls  poured  down  the  spine,  helps 
some  and  strong  black  coffee  does  the  rest.  Never  was  a  place,  a 
time,  a  condition,  more  poetic  than  the  green  court  of  the  Hotel  der 
Nederlanden  at  that  hour,  all  fresh  and  sweet  from  rain.  In  the 
southwest  blazed  the  Southern  Cross,  with  the  faithful  Centaurii, 
while  across  the  way  from  red  Antares,  high  in  the  heavens,  was 
red  Mars.  The  strange,  still  hour;  the  scent  of  wet  flowers  and 
foliage,  led  by  the  insistent  perfume  of  the  frangipani;  the  white 
orchids  staring  from  the  trees  with  their  thousand  eyes ;  the  noise- 
less natives  in  attendance,  the  crunch  of  carriage  wheels  upon  the 
gravel,  the  landlord  waiting  patiently  in  trousers  and  bare  feet  to 
bid  a  kind  good-bye — this  was  Java! 

When  half  a  dozen  years  later  the  Equator  was  crossed  a  second 
time,  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  another  dream  came  true.  Beside 
fifty-five  degrees  south,  Java's  nine  looked  small.  Yet  the  tropic 
glory  of  Batavia,  at  this  desolate  land's  end,  was  remembered  almost 
painfully.  The  sole  compensation  lay  in  the  attainment  of  those 
Antarctic  worlds  guarding  the  virgin  South  Pole,  and  to  see  the  re- 
splendent Southern  Cross  almost  overhead!  One  clear,  dark 
night  on  the  voyage  to  Valparaiso  I  was  able  to  round  up  every- 
thing :  the  Coal  Sack,  that  black  deep  in  the  Milky  Way,  close  to  the 
Cross,  which  even  hardened  astronomers  regard  with  awe;  the 
minor  Magellanic  Clouds,  mostly  in  Hydrus,  not  only  smaller  but 
duller  than  the  major  in  Dorado — contrary  to  the  opinion  of 
astronomic  authorities.  Every  South  Polar  star  hitherto  dimmed 
by  the  moonlight  stood  out  and  sang  its  own  eloquent  song,  while 
the  Milky  Way  was  a  sight  to  make  the  heart  stand  still.  Without 
effort  I  identified  the  constellations  Crater ;  Musca ;  Norma ;  Lupus ; 
Triangulum;  the  Crow;  Eridanus,  famous  for  Achenar,  clean, 
cold,  electric,  imperious;  all  the  second-magnitude  stars  in  Carina, 
keel  of  Argo  the  Ship,  home  of  godlike  Canopus,  my  first  tropical 
luminary,  adored  long  before  I  knew  he  was  the  biggest  thing  of  his 
kind  in  the  Universe ! 

At  Santiago  de  Chili,  within  the  shadow  of  that  Rock  of  Ages, 
beautiful  Santa  Lucia,  Scorpio  with  his  bloody  eye  and  wicked  sting- 
ing tail  followed  me  right  into  the  open  court  of  the  hotel  around 
which  were  grouped  the  dormitories.  So  not  before  Los  Andes, 
midst  its  lush  vegetation  at  the  foot  of  the  Cordilleras,  where  you 
pause  for  breath  before  climbing  those  mighty  flanks,  did  I  seem 
really  to  bid  the  southern  stellar  worlds  good-bye;  for  at  Buenos 
Ayres  I  noticed  only  that  the  sunny  side  of  the  Avenue  de  Mayo 
faced  north  and  that  Orion  in  the  zenith  was — upside  down! 

114 


Love,  the  fair  day  is  drawing  to  its  close, 
The  stars  are  rising,  and  a  soft  wind  blows; 
The  gates  of  heaven  are  opening  in  a  dream, 
The  nightingale  sings  to  the  sleeping  rose. 

Shadows,  and  dew,  and  silence,  and  the  stars; 
I  wonder,  love,  what  is  behind  those  bars 
Of  twinkling  silver — is  there  aught  behind? — 
Venus  and  Jupiter,  Sirius  and  Mars; 

Aldebaran  and  the  soft  Pleiades, 

Orion  ploughing  the  ethereal  seas, — 

Which  are  the  stars,  my  love,  and  which  your  eyes? 

And,  O  the  nightingale  in  yonder  trees! 

Paraphrase  of  the  Rubaiyat  by  Richard  Le  Gallienne. 


You  know  how,  in  and  for  themselves,  I  love  gems ;  and  how, 
less  and  less  as  the  years  go  on,  I  have  found  myself  able  to  wear  the 
few  I  own.  Like  fabrics,  they  seem  to  me  so  much  more  beautiful 
in  themselves  than  after  they  are  ready  to  wear — but  with  this  differ- 
ence: that  fabrics  worn  are  legitimately  useful,  while  jewels  worn 
are  only  ornamental — extrinsic,  unreasonable !  I  can  wear  a  brooch, 
which  does  something  and  is  beautiful  meanwhile ;  but  when  I  put  on 
a  necklace,  before  I  leave  the  mirror  I  take  it  off  again. 

Well:  how  to  reconcile  my  love  of  jewels,  which  is  real,  with 
my  inability  to  be  happy  (with  any  on  me !  I  couldn't  have  some  in 
a  box  to  look  at  on  occasion — that  would  be  like  drinking  alone.  I 
thought  of  it  a  good  deal,  and  then,  reading  Landor's  "Pericles  and 
Aspasia,"  I  came  on  this,  in  a  letter  to  Aspasia  from  Cleone : 

"Your  opinion  was  formerly  that  we  should  be  careful  not  to 
subdivide  the  person.  The  arm  is  composed  of  three  parts ;  no  one 
of  them  is  too  long.  Now  the  armlet  intersects  that  portion  of  it 
which  must  be  considered  as  the  most  beautiful.  In  my  idea  of  the 
matter,  the  sandal  alone  is  susceptible  of  gems,  after  the  zone  has 
received  the  richest.  The  zone  is  necessary  to  our  vesture  in  every 
quarter  of  the  humanized  world  in  one  invariable  manner." 

There  it  is.  Then  I  knew.  I  can  have  my  jewels  in  a  girdle. 
Ah,  well,  at  least  I  have  a  direction  for  my  imaginings  in  gems,  and 
I  need  no  longer  feel  a  little  sad,  a  little  alien,  when  I  think  of  them. 
Something  beautiful  to  use,  not  merely  to  hang  on,  have  I  discov- 
ered in  the  region  of  the  gemness  I  so  glorify. 

ZONA  GALE. 


116 


INDEX. 


Page 

AGATE    10,  88 

ALEXANDRITE 49 

AMAZONSTONE    89 

AMBER 94 

AMETHYST 88 

ARTIFICIAL  PRODUCTION  104 

AZURITE    91 

BENETOITE   91 

BERYL  53 

BLOODSTONE  .  .  88 


Page 

GARNET    68 

GEMS,  CARVED   10 

GEMS  IN  THE  SKY Ill 

GEM   LITERATURE    7 

HELIOTROPE   IS 

HIDDENITE   78 

HYACINTH    72 


JADE  . 
JASPER 
JET  .. 


CAIRNGORM    87     KUNZITE 


80 
10 
94 

79 


CAMEO    13 

CARNELIAN    87 

CATVEYE    48 

CHALCEDONY    87 

CHRYSOBERYL    48 

CHRYSOLITE    75 

CHRYSOPRASE    87 

CITRINE    87 

CORAL   92 

DEMANTOID   69 

DIAMOND   29 

EMERALD    45 

FAMOUS  JEWELS   22 

Braganza  Diamond   23 

Cullinan  22 

Dresden  Green  Diamond   27 

Eugenie  Diamond    27 

Excelsior       "          23 

Florentine      "          26 

Great  Mogul  "          23 

Halphen  Red  Diamond 27 

Hope  Blue  Diamond 25 

Kohinoor  24 

Mazarins  '        27 

Nassak  '       27 

Polar  Star  '       26 

Orloff  '       24 

Regent  "       26 

Star  of  the  South  Diamond 27 

Star  of  South  Africa  27 

Emerald,  Devonshire    28 

Opal,   Josephine    58 

Pearl,  La  Pellegrina 101 

Ruby,   Black   Prince 28 

Sapphire,  English  Crown 28 


LABRADORITE   89 

LAPIS   LAZULI    90 

MALACHITE  91 

METHODS  OF  TESTING  STONES 108 

MOONSTONE    89 

MORGANITE    54 

MOSS- AGATE     87 

OLIVINE   75 

OPAL  56 

PEARL    92,  95 

PERIDOT    75 

PLASMA    10 

QUARTZ 87 

RHODOLITE  69 

RHODONITE    79 

RUBY    39 

SAPPHIRE  42 

SARD    10 

SARDONYX    12,  87 

SCARAB   13 

SPHENE    83 

SPINEL    51 

SPODUMENE  78 

STONES  IN  THE  BIBLE 17 

SUNSTONE   89 

TOPAZ   60 

TOURMALINE    63 

TURQUOISE 84 

ZIRCON    .65 


117 


397: 
^v- v-«#»  ;w 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


